Robert Overton
Encyclopedia
Major-General Robert Overton (about 1609–1678) was prominent soldier and scholar, who supported the Parliamentary cause during the English Civil War
, and was imprisoned a number of times during the Protectorate
and the English Restoration
for his strong republican views.
, Robert Overton supported the Parliamentary cause. He was probably influenced by Sir William Constable later to become a regicide
.
At the outbreak of the First English Civil War
, he tried to join the army of Lord Ferdinando Fairfax
, but no official positions were available. He was allowed to fight without any definite rank and distinguished himself in the defence of Hull
and at the Battle of Marston Moor
.
In August 1645 the governor of Pontefract
, Sir Thomas Fairfax
, appointed Overton deputy governor of Pontefract
. Shortly after this appointment Overton captured Sandal Castle
. Overton was acting governor during the siege. During the siege it was reported that he was inconsiderate to Lady Cutler and refused to let Sir Gervaise Cutler be buried in the church.
In the summer of 1647 Overton gained a commission in the New Model Army
and in July was given command of the late Colonel Herbert's foot regiment. During the political debates within the New Model Army we was a member of the Army Council and sat on the committee at the Putney Debates
.
In March 1648, Fairfax appointed Overton, deputy governor of Kingston upon Hull
. There he became friends with the notable Puritan poet Andrew Marvell
, but was a very unpopular with the townsfolk. The townsfolk were known to by sympathetic to the Royalist cause and in June of 1648 the town Mayor and some of the town council petitioned for his removal.
The sources differ as to his actions during Second English Civil War
, Barbara Taft writes that he spent the war in Hull, while Nan Overton West writes that he fought with Oliver Cromwell
in Wales and the North of England, that he took the Isle of Axolme and was with Cromwell when Charles I
was taken to the Isle of Wight
.
He supported the trial of the King in late 1648 early 1649, but wrote that he only wanted him deposed and not executed. He disagreed with other points of policy of the early Commonwealth government publishing his position in a pamphlet titled "The declaration of the officers of the garrison of Hull in order to the peace and settlement of the kingdom" and accompanying letter to Thomas Fairfax, in early January. The letter makes it clear that he supported actions like Pride's Purge
if the "corrupt Commons" stopped the Army's reforms. Barbara Taft writes that the last six pages of the decleration reflect the case made in the Remonstrance by the New Model Army to Parliament, the rejection of which had triggered Pride's Purge:
As divisions within the New Model Army widened during the Summer of 1649, fearing that these divisions would be used by their enemies, Overton issued a letter that made it clear that he sided with the Rump Parliament and the Grandees against the Levellers
.
When the Third Civil War
broke out in 1650 he accompanied Cromwell to Scotland and commanded a Foot Brigade at the Battle of Dunbar
his regiment was also involved in the English Parliamentary victory at the Battle of Inverkeithing
(20 July 1651) where Overton commanded the reserve.
When then New Model Army returned to England in pursuit of the invading Royalist Scottish army, Overton remained in Scotland as governor of Edinburgh
. He helped complete the subjugation of Scotland and commanded an expedition to reduce the garrison forces in Orkney. On 14 May 1652 a grateful Parliament voted Scottish lands to him with an annual income of him 400 pounds sterling per year. In December 1652, when George Monck's successor Richard Deane
was recalled, Monck appointed Overton as Military Commander over all the English forces in the Western Highlands with the rank of Major-General. He was also appointed governor of Aberdeen.
In 1653 he returned to England because of his father's death and succeeded to the family estate in Easington
. He also resumed duties as governor of Hull. During 1650 he and his wife had become members of the "church" and in retrospect he considered the execution of Charles I as a fulfilment of Old Testament scripture, and often cited Ezekiel 21:26-27, concerning the humble and God's "overturning" established order. Overton wrote: "the Lord...is forced to shake and shake and overturn and overturn; this is a shaking, overturning dispensation." Some sources claim he was a Fifth Monarchist, but his views seemed to have spanned several of the religious beliefs and political grouping of the day and it is difficult to label him as belonging to any one group.
He hailed Cromwell's dissolution of the Rump Parliament
in June 1653, but he subsequently became disenchanted and suspicious of Cromwell as Lord Protector
. Although his letters to Cromwell remained cordial, during the early years of the Protectorate
he seems to have become more and more disenchanted with the Lord Protector and the speed of reform. Cromwell informed him that he could keep his position in the army so long as he promised to relinquish his command when he could no longer support the policies of the Protectorate.
In September 1654 Overton returned to his command in Scotland. In December 1654, Overton was arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London for his part in the "Overton Revolt". It was alleged that a verse in Overton's handwriting, found amongst his papers:
He was accused of planning a military insurrection against the government and plotting to assassinate Monck. It is not clear how involved he was in the plot, because he was good friends with Monck at the time and would have been unlikely to have been involved in a plot to kill him. But whatever his real position he was considered to have been too lenient with his "disaffected officers" in sanctioning their meetings and there was evidence that he held meetings with John Wildman
, an incorrigible Leveller plotter, who would use anyone in order to bring down the Protectorate. Later while in the Tower of London
, wrote to others informing them of Wildman's plans. A fellow prisoner in the Tower at that time wrote of Overton, "He was a great independent, civil and decent, a scholar, but a little pedantic."
In 1655 Cromwell was convinced enough of his guilt to have him removed as governor of Hull and to confiscate the lands granted to him by Parliament in Scotland handing them back to Earl of Leven
the owner before they were confiscated by Parliament.
Overton remained imprisoned in the Tower until in March 1658 when he was moved to Elizabeth Castle
on the island of Jersey
. Barbara Taft mentions that "It is not unlikely that respect for Overton's ability and fear of his appeal as an opposition leader played a major role in his imprisonment." After Cromwell's death and the re-installation of the Commonwealth, Grizelle, his sister, his wife Anne, her brother, and many Republicans, presented his case to Parliament, on 3 February 1659, along with letters from Overton's close friend John Milton
. Overton and John Milton probably became acquainted early on in St Giles
in Cripplegate
, where they moved and lived for a time. Milton considered Overton a scholar and celebrated him and his exploits in his "Defensio Secundo" by writing: "...bound to me these many years past in friendship of more than brotherly closeness and affection, both by the similarity of our tastes and the sweetness of your manners." Milton also included Overton in his list of "twelve apostles of revolutionary integrity."
On 16 March 1659, Parliament ordered Overton released from prison after hearing his case, pronouncing his imprisonment illegal. Overton's return was called "his greatest political triumph; a huge crowd, bearing laurel branches, acclaimed him and diverted his coach from its planned path." In June 1659 he was restored to his command and further compensated for his losses. Charles II wrote him promising him forgiveness for past disloyalty and rewarded him for services in effecting the restoration. Overton was appointed governor of Hull and again was unpopular, many referring to him as "Governor Overturn," because of his association with the Fifth Monarchists
who used the phrase liberally. This perception was reinforced by the sermons of John Canne
, a well known Fifth Monarchist preacher in Overton's regiment at Hull.
On 12 October 1659 he was one of seven Commanders in whom Parliament vested the government of the army until January 1660.
By early 1660, Overton's position started to diverge from that of Monck, as he did not support the return of Charles II, but he and his officers refused to aid Generals Lambert
and Fleetwood
He sought to mediate and published an exhortation to them to maintain the Lord's cause, entitled "The Humble Healing Advice of R.O." His ambiguity of conduct and letters to troops in Yorkshire caused Monck much embarrassment, and as a result, Monck had Lord Thomas Fairfax
order him to take any order Monck gave.
On 4 March 1660, a day after Lambert's arrest, Monck ordered Overton to surrender his command to Fairfax and come to London. Overton planned a stand, but he must have seen that defeat would have been inevitable. Hull's disaffection for him and some division among the garrison caused him to allow himself to be replaced by Thomas Fairfax's son, Charles Fairfax. The Garrison in Hull began the English Civil War as the first town to resist Charles I and was among the last to accept his son Charles II. After 1642 no monarch would set foot in Hull for over 200 years.
Overton was an independent and a republican. He was regarded, perhaps falsely, as one of the Fifth Monarchists, and at the first rumour of insurrection was arrested and sent to the Tower of London in December 1660, where Samuel Pepys
went to see him and wrote in his diary that Overton had been found with a large quantity of arms, which Pepys recorded that Overton said he only bought to London to sell.
Overton was briefly at liberty in the Autumn of 1661. Realising that he might be re-arrested at any moment he spent the time arranging his financial and personal affairs he issued a series of deeds to make provision for his mother, his wife and family and to avoid confiscation of his property by the Crown. Most of his properties were sold to his family, to his sons Ebenezer and Fairfax and his daughter Joanna, and close friends. The last documents were executed on 7 November 1661 and on 9 November 1661 he was sent to Chepstow Castle
. He managed a short interval of freedom but was again arrested on 26 May 1663 on "suspicion of seditious practices and for refusing to sign the oaths or give security." As Andrew Marvell
, the English Satirist, wrote in a letter to John Milton, "Col. Overton [was] one of those steady Republicans whom Cromwell was unable to conciliate and was under the necessity of security."
In 1664 the government sent him to Jersey
, the second time he had been imprisoned there and this time it was to be for seven years. During this time he was allowed out and about on the island which was not uncommon for high-ranking political prisoners. Overton spent the years of his incarceration in Mont Orgueil Castle
on Jersey Island trying to establish his freedom. He wrote a 370 page manuscript of letters, meditations and poetry to his beloved wife's memory and about religious subjects. The manuscript "Gospell Observations & Religious Manifestations &c.", He remain a prisoner on Jersey until early December 1671 when he was released to his brother-in-law by a warrant that was signed by Charles II. He returned to England and lived his last years with or near his daughters and probably two sons in Rutland
.
Overton’s will is dated 23 June 1678, aged 69, Nan Overton West records that he was buried on 2 July 1678 in Seaton
churchyard, overlooking the Welland Valley and Rockingham Castle
while Barbra Taft writes that he was buried in New Church Yard, Moorfields
in London.
, Yorkshire
in about 1609. His farther was John Overton (~1566-1654) and his mother Joan (née Snawsell). He was the eldest of five children: Robert, Frances, Germaine, Griselle (Griselda) and Thomas. His education was completed at Gray's Inn
where he was admitted on 1 November 1631.
Overton marrid Anne Gardiner (a Londoner, born about 1613) at the Church of St. Bartholomew the Less in Smithfield
, London
on 28 June 1632. They had ten children
John (born about 1635), Jermie, William, Robert, Allatheia, Dorcas, Ebenezer, Anne, Fairfax and Joanna (born 1650).
The South Aisle of the All Saints Church in Easington
contains The Lady Chapel. Above the Altar is a monument dated 1651 which was placed there by Maj. Gen. Robert Overton in memory of his parents, "the deceased but never to be divided John Overton and his wife Joan"
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...
, and was imprisoned a number of times during the Protectorate
The Protectorate
In British history, the Protectorate was the period 1653–1659 during which the Commonwealth of England was governed by a Lord Protector.-Background:...
and the English Restoration
English Restoration
The Restoration of the English monarchy began in 1660 when the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were all restored under Charles II after the Interregnum that followed the Wars of the Three Kingdoms...
for his strong republican views.
Biography
As positions hardened during the period before the English Civil WarEnglish Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...
, Robert Overton supported the Parliamentary cause. He was probably influenced by Sir William Constable later to become a regicide
Regicide
The broad definition of regicide is the deliberate killing of a monarch, or the person responsible for the killing of a monarch. In a narrower sense, in the British tradition, it refers to the judicial execution of a king after a trial...
.
At the outbreak of the First English Civil War
First English Civil War
The First English Civil War began the series of three wars known as the English Civil War . "The English Civil War" was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations that took place between Parliamentarians and Royalists from 1642 until 1651, and includes the Second English Civil War and...
, he tried to join the army of Lord Ferdinando Fairfax
Ferdinando Fairfax, 2nd Lord Fairfax of Cameron
Ferdinando Fairfax, 2nd Lord Fairfax of Cameron , English parliamentary general.-Early life:He was born in Yorkshire the eldest son of Thomas Fairfax, whom Charles I in 1627 created Lord Fairfax of Cameron in the Peerage of Scotland and received a military education in the Netherlands. Two of his...
, but no official positions were available. He was allowed to fight without any definite rank and distinguished himself in the defence of Hull
Siege of Hull (1642)
The Siege of Hull in 1642 was the first major action of the English Civil War.As both sides moved towards war, Parliament had access to more military materiel, due to its possession of all major cities including the large arsenal in London...
and at the Battle of Marston Moor
Battle of Marston Moor
The Battle of Marston Moor was fought on 2 July 1644, during the First English Civil War of 1642–1646. The combined forces of the Scottish Covenanters under the Earl of Leven and the English Parliamentarians under Lord Fairfax and the Earl of Manchester defeated the Royalists commanded by Prince...
.
In August 1645 the governor of Pontefract
Pontefract
Pontefract is an historic market town in West Yorkshire, England. Traditionally in the West Riding, near the A1 , the M62 motorway and Castleford. It is one of the five towns in the metropolitan borough of the City of Wakefield and has a population of 28,250...
, Sir Thomas Fairfax
Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Lord Fairfax of Cameron
Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Lord Fairfax of Cameron was a general and parliamentary commander-in-chief during the English Civil War...
, appointed Overton deputy governor of Pontefract
Pontefract
Pontefract is an historic market town in West Yorkshire, England. Traditionally in the West Riding, near the A1 , the M62 motorway and Castleford. It is one of the five towns in the metropolitan borough of the City of Wakefield and has a population of 28,250...
. Shortly after this appointment Overton captured Sandal Castle
Sandal Castle
Sandal Castle is a ruined medieval castle in Sandal Magna, a suburb of the city of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, overlooking the River Calder. It was the site of royal intrigue, the opening of one of William Shakespeare's plays, and was the source for a common children's nursery rhyme.-The...
. Overton was acting governor during the siege. During the siege it was reported that he was inconsiderate to Lady Cutler and refused to let Sir Gervaise Cutler be buried in the church.
In the summer of 1647 Overton gained a commission in the New Model Army
New Model Army
The New Model Army of England was formed in 1645 by the Parliamentarians in the English Civil War, and was disbanded in 1660 after the Restoration...
and in July was given command of the late Colonel Herbert's foot regiment. During the political debates within the New Model Army we was a member of the Army Council and sat on the committee at the Putney Debates
Putney Debates
The Putney Debates were a series of discussions between members of the New Model Army – a number of the participants being Levellers – concerning the makeup of a new constitution for England....
.
In March 1648, Fairfax appointed Overton, deputy governor of Kingston upon Hull
Kingston upon Hull
Kingston upon Hull , usually referred to as Hull, is a city and unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It stands on the River Hull at its junction with the Humber estuary, 25 miles inland from the North Sea. Hull has a resident population of...
. There he became friends with the notable Puritan poet Andrew Marvell
Andrew Marvell
Andrew Marvell was an English metaphysical poet, Parliamentarian, and the son of a Church of England clergyman . As a metaphysical poet, he is associated with John Donne and George Herbert...
, but was a very unpopular with the townsfolk. The townsfolk were known to by sympathetic to the Royalist cause and in June of 1648 the town Mayor and some of the town council petitioned for his removal.
The sources differ as to his actions during Second English Civil War
Second English Civil War
The Second English Civil War was the second of three wars known as the English Civil War which refers to the series of armed conflicts and political machinations which took place between Parliamentarians and Royalists from 1642 until 1652 and also include the First English Civil War and the...
, Barbara Taft writes that he spent the war in Hull, while Nan Overton West writes that he fought with Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
in Wales and the North of England, that he took the Isle of Axolme and was with Cromwell when Charles I
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
was taken to the Isle of Wight
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent...
.
He supported the trial of the King in late 1648 early 1649, but wrote that he only wanted him deposed and not executed. He disagreed with other points of policy of the early Commonwealth government publishing his position in a pamphlet titled "The declaration of the officers of the garrison of Hull in order to the peace and settlement of the kingdom" and accompanying letter to Thomas Fairfax, in early January. The letter makes it clear that he supported actions like Pride's Purge
Pride's Purge
Pride’s Purge is an event in December 1648, during the Second English Civil War, when troops under the command of Colonel Thomas Pride forcibly removed from the Long Parliament all those who were not supporters of the Grandees in the New Model Army and the Independents...
if the "corrupt Commons" stopped the Army's reforms. Barbara Taft writes that the last six pages of the decleration reflect the case made in the Remonstrance by the New Model Army to Parliament, the rejection of which had triggered Pride's Purge:
As divisions within the New Model Army widened during the Summer of 1649, fearing that these divisions would be used by their enemies, Overton issued a letter that made it clear that he sided with the Rump Parliament and the Grandees against the Levellers
Levellers
The Levellers were a political movement during the English Civil Wars which emphasised popular sovereignty, extended suffrage, equality before the law, and religious tolerance, all of which were expressed in the manifesto "Agreement of the People". They came to prominence at the end of the First...
.
When the Third Civil War
Third English Civil War
The Third English Civil War was the last of the English Civil Wars , a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists....
broke out in 1650 he accompanied Cromwell to Scotland and commanded a Foot Brigade at the Battle of Dunbar
Battle of Dunbar (1650)
The Battle of Dunbar was a battle of the Third English Civil War. The English Parliamentarian forces under Oliver Cromwell defeated a Scottish army commanded by David Leslie which was loyal to King Charles II, who had been proclaimed King of Scots on 5 February 1649.-Background:The English...
his regiment was also involved in the English Parliamentary victory at the Battle of Inverkeithing
Battle of Inverkeithing
The Battle of Inverkeithing was a battle of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. It was fought on 20 July 1651 between an English Parliamentarian army under John Lambert and a Scottish Covenanter army acting on behalf of Charles II, led by Sir John Brown of Fordell. Lambert's force was a seaborne...
(20 July 1651) where Overton commanded the reserve.
When then New Model Army returned to England in pursuit of the invading Royalist Scottish army, Overton remained in Scotland as governor of Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
. He helped complete the subjugation of Scotland and commanded an expedition to reduce the garrison forces in Orkney. On 14 May 1652 a grateful Parliament voted Scottish lands to him with an annual income of him 400 pounds sterling per year. In December 1652, when George Monck's successor Richard Deane
Richard Deane
Richard Deane , English general-at-sea, major-general and regicide, was a younger son of Edward Deane of Temple Guiting or Guyting in Gloucestershire, where he was born, his baptism taking place on 8 July 1610...
was recalled, Monck appointed Overton as Military Commander over all the English forces in the Western Highlands with the rank of Major-General. He was also appointed governor of Aberdeen.
In 1653 he returned to England because of his father's death and succeeded to the family estate in Easington
Easington, East Riding of Yorkshire
Easington is a small village and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England in the area known as Holderness. It is situated between the Humber estuary and the North Sea at the south-eastern corner of the county at the end of the B1445 road from Patrington.The civil parish is formed by...
. He also resumed duties as governor of Hull. During 1650 he and his wife had become members of the "church" and in retrospect he considered the execution of Charles I as a fulfilment of Old Testament scripture, and often cited Ezekiel 21:26-27, concerning the humble and God's "overturning" established order. Overton wrote: "the Lord...is forced to shake and shake and overturn and overturn; this is a shaking, overturning dispensation." Some sources claim he was a Fifth Monarchist, but his views seemed to have spanned several of the religious beliefs and political grouping of the day and it is difficult to label him as belonging to any one group.
He hailed Cromwell's dissolution of the Rump Parliament
Rump Parliament
The Rump Parliament is the name of the English Parliament after Colonel Pride purged the Long Parliament on 6 December 1648 of those members hostile to the Grandees' intention to try King Charles I for high treason....
in June 1653, but he subsequently became disenchanted and suspicious of Cromwell as Lord Protector
Lord Protector
Lord Protector is a title used in British constitutional law for certain heads of state at different periods of history. It is also a particular title for the British Heads of State in respect to the established church...
. Although his letters to Cromwell remained cordial, during the early years of the Protectorate
The Protectorate
In British history, the Protectorate was the period 1653–1659 during which the Commonwealth of England was governed by a Lord Protector.-Background:...
he seems to have become more and more disenchanted with the Lord Protector and the speed of reform. Cromwell informed him that he could keep his position in the army so long as he promised to relinquish his command when he could no longer support the policies of the Protectorate.
In September 1654 Overton returned to his command in Scotland. In December 1654, Overton was arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London for his part in the "Overton Revolt". It was alleged that a verse in Overton's handwriting, found amongst his papers:
He was accused of planning a military insurrection against the government and plotting to assassinate Monck. It is not clear how involved he was in the plot, because he was good friends with Monck at the time and would have been unlikely to have been involved in a plot to kill him. But whatever his real position he was considered to have been too lenient with his "disaffected officers" in sanctioning their meetings and there was evidence that he held meetings with John Wildman
John Wildman
Sir John Wildman was an English soldier and politician.-Biography:Wildman was born in the Norfolk town of Wymondham, the son of Jeffrey and Dorothy Wildman. His father was a butcher. John was educated as a sizar at Corpus Christi College University of Cambridge taking an MA in 1644...
, an incorrigible Leveller plotter, who would use anyone in order to bring down the Protectorate. Later while in the Tower of London
Tower of London
Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open space...
, wrote to others informing them of Wildman's plans. A fellow prisoner in the Tower at that time wrote of Overton, "He was a great independent, civil and decent, a scholar, but a little pedantic."
In 1655 Cromwell was convinced enough of his guilt to have him removed as governor of Hull and to confiscate the lands granted to him by Parliament in Scotland handing them back to Earl of Leven
Alexander Leslie, 1st Earl of Leven
Alexander Leslie, 1st Earl of Leven was a Scottish soldier in Dutch, Swedish and Scottish service. Born illegitimate and raised as a foster child, he subsequently advanced to the rank of a Dutch captain, a Swedish Field Marshal, and in Scotland became lord general in command of the Covenanters,...
the owner before they were confiscated by Parliament.
Overton remained imprisoned in the Tower until in March 1658 when he was moved to Elizabeth Castle
Elizabeth Castle
Elizabeth Castle is a castle in Saint Helier, Jersey. Construction was started in the 16th century when the power of cannon meant that the existing stronghold at Mont Orgueil was insufficient to defend the Island and the port of St. Helier was vulnerable to attack by ships armed with...
on the island of Jersey
Jersey
Jersey, officially the Bailiwick of Jersey is a British Crown Dependency off the coast of Normandy, France. As well as the island of Jersey itself, the bailiwick includes two groups of small islands that are no longer permanently inhabited, the Minquiers and Écréhous, and the Pierres de Lecq and...
. Barbara Taft mentions that "It is not unlikely that respect for Overton's ability and fear of his appeal as an opposition leader played a major role in his imprisonment." After Cromwell's death and the re-installation of the Commonwealth, Grizelle, his sister, his wife Anne, her brother, and many Republicans, presented his case to Parliament, on 3 February 1659, along with letters from Overton's close friend John Milton
John Milton
John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell...
. Overton and John Milton probably became acquainted early on in St Giles
St Giles-without-Cripplegate
St Giles-without-Cripplegate is a Church of England church in the City of London, located within the modern Barbican complex. When built it stood without the city wall, near the Cripplegate. The church is dedicated to St Giles, patron saint of beggars and cripples...
in Cripplegate
Cripplegate
Cripplegate was a city gate in the London Wall and a name for the region of the City of London outside the gate. The area was almost entirely destroyed by bombing in World War II and today is the site of the Barbican Estate and Barbican Centre...
, where they moved and lived for a time. Milton considered Overton a scholar and celebrated him and his exploits in his "Defensio Secundo" by writing: "...bound to me these many years past in friendship of more than brotherly closeness and affection, both by the similarity of our tastes and the sweetness of your manners." Milton also included Overton in his list of "twelve apostles of revolutionary integrity."
On 16 March 1659, Parliament ordered Overton released from prison after hearing his case, pronouncing his imprisonment illegal. Overton's return was called "his greatest political triumph; a huge crowd, bearing laurel branches, acclaimed him and diverted his coach from its planned path." In June 1659 he was restored to his command and further compensated for his losses. Charles II wrote him promising him forgiveness for past disloyalty and rewarded him for services in effecting the restoration. Overton was appointed governor of Hull and again was unpopular, many referring to him as "Governor Overturn," because of his association with the Fifth Monarchists
Fifth Monarchists
The Fifth Monarchists or Fifth Monarchy Men were active from 1649 to 1661 during the Interregnum, following the English Civil Wars of the 17th century. They took their name from a prophecy in the Book of Daniel that four ancient monarchies would precede Christ's return...
who used the phrase liberally. This perception was reinforced by the sermons of John Canne
John Canne
-Life:The London separatist congregation of John Hubbard, who had moved with them to Ireland around 1621, on Hubbard’s death came back to London and chose Canne as minister. After a year or two he went to Amsterdam, and there became the successor of Henry Ainsworth as pastor of the congregation of...
, a well known Fifth Monarchist preacher in Overton's regiment at Hull.
On 12 October 1659 he was one of seven Commanders in whom Parliament vested the government of the army until January 1660.
By early 1660, Overton's position started to diverge from that of Monck, as he did not support the return of Charles II, but he and his officers refused to aid Generals Lambert
John Lambert (general)
John Lambert was an English Parliamentary general and politician. He fought during the English Civil War and then in Oliver Cromwell's Scottish campaign , becoming thereafter active in civilian politics until his dismissal by Cromwell in 1657...
and Fleetwood
Charles Fleetwood
Charles Fleetwood was an English Parliamentary soldier and politician, Lord Deputy of Ireland from 1652–55, where he enforced the Cromwellian Settlement. At the Restoration he was included in the Act of Indemnity as among the twenty liable to penalties other than capital, and was finally...
He sought to mediate and published an exhortation to them to maintain the Lord's cause, entitled "The Humble Healing Advice of R.O." His ambiguity of conduct and letters to troops in Yorkshire caused Monck much embarrassment, and as a result, Monck had Lord Thomas Fairfax
Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Lord Fairfax of Cameron
Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Lord Fairfax of Cameron was a general and parliamentary commander-in-chief during the English Civil War...
order him to take any order Monck gave.
On 4 March 1660, a day after Lambert's arrest, Monck ordered Overton to surrender his command to Fairfax and come to London. Overton planned a stand, but he must have seen that defeat would have been inevitable. Hull's disaffection for him and some division among the garrison caused him to allow himself to be replaced by Thomas Fairfax's son, Charles Fairfax. The Garrison in Hull began the English Civil War as the first town to resist Charles I and was among the last to accept his son Charles II. After 1642 no monarch would set foot in Hull for over 200 years.
Overton was an independent and a republican. He was regarded, perhaps falsely, as one of the Fifth Monarchists, and at the first rumour of insurrection was arrested and sent to the Tower of London in December 1660, where Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys FRS, MP, JP, was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament who is now most famous for the diary he kept for a decade while still a relatively young man...
went to see him and wrote in his diary that Overton had been found with a large quantity of arms, which Pepys recorded that Overton said he only bought to London to sell.
Overton was briefly at liberty in the Autumn of 1661. Realising that he might be re-arrested at any moment he spent the time arranging his financial and personal affairs he issued a series of deeds to make provision for his mother, his wife and family and to avoid confiscation of his property by the Crown. Most of his properties were sold to his family, to his sons Ebenezer and Fairfax and his daughter Joanna, and close friends. The last documents were executed on 7 November 1661 and on 9 November 1661 he was sent to Chepstow Castle
Chepstow Castle
Chepstow Castle , located in Chepstow, Monmouthshire in Wales, on top of cliffs overlooking the River Wye, is the oldest surviving post-Roman stone fortification in Britain...
. He managed a short interval of freedom but was again arrested on 26 May 1663 on "suspicion of seditious practices and for refusing to sign the oaths or give security." As Andrew Marvell
Andrew Marvell
Andrew Marvell was an English metaphysical poet, Parliamentarian, and the son of a Church of England clergyman . As a metaphysical poet, he is associated with John Donne and George Herbert...
, the English Satirist, wrote in a letter to John Milton, "Col. Overton [was] one of those steady Republicans whom Cromwell was unable to conciliate and was under the necessity of security."
In 1664 the government sent him to Jersey
Jersey
Jersey, officially the Bailiwick of Jersey is a British Crown Dependency off the coast of Normandy, France. As well as the island of Jersey itself, the bailiwick includes two groups of small islands that are no longer permanently inhabited, the Minquiers and Écréhous, and the Pierres de Lecq and...
, the second time he had been imprisoned there and this time it was to be for seven years. During this time he was allowed out and about on the island which was not uncommon for high-ranking political prisoners. Overton spent the years of his incarceration in Mont Orgueil Castle
Mont Orgueil
Mont Orgueil is a castle in Jersey. It is located overlooking the harbour of Gorey. It is also called Gorey Castle by English-speakers, and lé Vièr Châté by Jèrriais-speakers....
on Jersey Island trying to establish his freedom. He wrote a 370 page manuscript of letters, meditations and poetry to his beloved wife's memory and about religious subjects. The manuscript "Gospell Observations & Religious Manifestations &c.", He remain a prisoner on Jersey until early December 1671 when he was released to his brother-in-law by a warrant that was signed by Charles II. He returned to England and lived his last years with or near his daughters and probably two sons in Rutland
Rutland
Rutland is a landlocked county in central England, bounded on the west and north by Leicestershire, northeast by Lincolnshire and southeast by Peterborough and Northamptonshire....
.
Overton’s will is dated 23 June 1678, aged 69, Nan Overton West records that he was buried on 2 July 1678 in Seaton
Seaton, Rutland
Seaton is a village and civil parish in the county of Rutland in the East Midlands of England.Nearby is the large Seaton Viaduct, on the Oakham to Kettering railway line. It is three quarters of a mile long and took four years to build. It has 82 arches which are up to high. The railway is now...
churchyard, overlooking the Welland Valley and Rockingham Castle
Rockingham Castle
Rockingham Castle is a former royal castle and hunting lodge in Rockingham Forest a mile to the north of Corby, Northamptonshire.-History:The site on which the castle stands has been used in the Iron Age, Roman period and by the invading Saxons also used by the Normans, Tudors and also used in the...
while Barbra Taft writes that he was buried in New Church Yard, Moorfields
Moorfields
In London, the Moorfields were one of the last pieces of open land in the City of London, near the Moorgate. The fields were divided into three areas, the Moorfields proper, just north of Bethlem Hospital, and inside the City boundaries, and Middle and Upper Moorfields to the north.After the Great...
in London.
Genealogy
Overton was born at Easington Manor in HoldernessHolderness
Holderness is an area of the East Riding of Yorkshire, on the east coast of England. An area of rich agricultural land, Holderness was marshland until it was drained in the Middle Ages. Topographically, Holderness has more in common with the Netherlands than other parts of Yorkshire...
, Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
in about 1609. His farther was John Overton (~1566-1654) and his mother Joan (née Snawsell). He was the eldest of five children: Robert, Frances, Germaine, Griselle (Griselda) and Thomas. His education was completed at Gray's Inn
Gray's Inn
The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court in London. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wales, an individual must belong to one of these Inns...
where he was admitted on 1 November 1631.
Overton marrid Anne Gardiner (a Londoner, born about 1613) at the Church of St. Bartholomew the Less in Smithfield
Smithfield, London
Smithfield is an area of the City of London, in the ward of Farringdon Without. It is located in the north-west part of the City, and is mostly known for its centuries-old meat market, today the last surviving historical wholesale market in Central London...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
on 28 June 1632. They had ten children
John (born about 1635), Jermie, William, Robert, Allatheia, Dorcas, Ebenezer, Anne, Fairfax and Joanna (born 1650).
The South Aisle of the All Saints Church in Easington
Easington, East Riding of Yorkshire
Easington is a small village and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England in the area known as Holderness. It is situated between the Humber estuary and the North Sea at the south-eastern corner of the county at the end of the B1445 road from Patrington.The civil parish is formed by...
contains The Lady Chapel. Above the Altar is a monument dated 1651 which was placed there by Maj. Gen. Robert Overton in memory of his parents, "the deceased but never to be divided John Overton and his wife Joan"
Further reading
- Noble, MarkMark Noble (biographer)Mark Noble was an English clergyman, biographer and antiquary.-Life:He was born in Digbeth, Birmingham, the third surviving son of William Heatley Noble, a merchant there...
. The lives of the English regicides: and other commissioners of the pretended High court of justice, appointed to sit in judgement upon their sovereign, King Charles the First, Volume II, J. Stockdale, 1798, pp. 110–117 - Plant, David. Robert Overton, Soldier, Republican, 1609-79 British Civil Wars website
- Summers, Claude J. and Pebworth, Ted-Larry (eds). The English Civil Wars in the Literary Imagination, ISBN 0-8262-1220-4 includes "A most humane foe" by Andrew Shifflett,
- Mentions a well known Fifth preacher in Robert Overton regiment at Hull called John CanneJohn Canne-Life:The London separatist congregation of John Hubbard, who had moved with them to Ireland around 1621, on Hubbard’s death came back to London and chose Canne as minister. After a year or two he went to Amsterdam, and there became the successor of Henry Ainsworth as pastor of the congregation of...
- Picture of Overton and Mont Orgueil Castle on the Isle of Jersey