Charles Overton

Charles Overton (1805–1889) was an English cleric and writer.

The sixth son of John Overton (1763–1838), rector of St. Margaret's and St. Crux, he was born in York . He was brought up to be a civil engineer, and was not sent to university; but in 1829 he was ordained deacon by Edward Venables-Vernon-Harcourt, the Archbishop of York. He was for a short time assistant curate of Christ Church, Harrogate, but in the year of his ordination moved to Romaldkirk near Barnard Castle.

Overton received priest's orders in 1830 from John Bird Sumner, Bishop of Chester, who in 1837 was presented him to the vicarage of Clapham, then in West Riding of Yorkshire. In 1841 Sumner presented him to the vicarage of Cottingham, near Hull, where he spent the remainder of his life. He was an evangelical and active parish priest in a scattered parish, which then included Skidby and Newland. The parish church of Cottingham was restored, a parsonage and schools were built, and the income increased, while schools and vicarage houses were built at Skidby and Newland. He died on 31 March 1889, and was buried at Cottingham.

Overton wrote both in prose and verse. The most popular of his works was Cottage Lectures on Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" practically explained (1847 first part, 1849 second part), well received by British and American evangelicals. A poem Ecclesia Anglicana (London, n.d.) was written at Romaldkirk to celebrate the restoration of York Minster after its partial destruction by the arsonist Jonathan Martin; a later edition appeared in 1853. It was good-humouredly satirised by Thomas Moore in a parody.

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