Marianne Ludlam, daughter of John Allott of Hague Hall, Yorkshire, and rector of Maltby, Lincolnshire; she survived him with one daughter. As memorials of Overton a brass tablet was placed in Epworth parish church by the parishioners, a stained glass window and a reredos in Skidbrook church, and a two-light window in the chapter-house of Lincoln Cathedral.
As an historian and biographer Overton showed much insight both into general tendencies and into personal character; was well-read, careful, fair in judgment, and pleasing in style. The arrangement of his historical work is not uniformly satisfactory; he was apt to injure his representation of a movement in thought or action by excess of biographical detail. Besides his share in the joint work with Abbey noticed above, he published: 1. 'William Law, Nonjuror and Mystic,' 1881. 2. 'Life in the English Church, 1660-1714,' 1885. 3. 'The Evangelical Revival in the Eighteenth Century' in Bp. Creighton's 'Epochs of Church History,' 1886. 4. 'Life of Christopher Wordsworth, Bp. of Lincoln,' with Miss Wordsworth, 1888, 1890. 6. 'John Hannah, a Clerical Study,' 1890. 6. 'John Wesley,' in 'Leaders of Religion' serias, 1891. 7. 'The English Church in the Nineteenth Century,' 1894. 8. 'The Church in England,' 2 vols., in Ditchfield's 'National Churches,' 1897. 9. 'The Anglican Revival' in the 'Victorian Era' series, 1897. 10. An edition of Law's 'Serious Call' in the 'English Theological Library,' 1898. 11. 'The Nonjurors, their Lives, &c.,' 1902. 12. 'Some Post-Reformation Saints,' 1905, posthumous. 13. At his death he left unfinished 'A History of the English Church from the Accession of George I to the End of the Eighteenth Century,' a volume for the 'History of the English Church' edited by Dean Stephens [q. v. Suppl. II] and William Hunt; the book was edited and completed by the Rev. Frederic Relton in 1906. He contributed many memoirs of divines to this Dictionary, and wrote for the 'Dictionary of Hymnology,' the 'Church Quarterly Review,' and other periodicals.
[Private information; The Times, 19 Sept. 1903; Guardian, 23 Sept. 1903; obituary notices in Northampton Mercury, the Peterborough and other local papers.]
OVERTOUN, first Baron. [See White, John Campbell (1843–1908), Scottish philanthropist.]
OWEN, ROBERT (1820–1902), theologian, born at Dolgelly, Merionethshire, on 13 May 1820, was third son of David Owen, a surgeon of that town, by Ann, youngest daughter of Hugh Evans of Fronfelen and Esgairgeiliog, near Machynlleth. His brothers died unmarried in early manhood. Educated at Ruthin grammar school, where he showed much, precocity (Harriet Thomas, Father and Son, p. 60), he matriculated from Jesus College, Oxford, on 22 Nov. 1838; was scholar from 1839 to 1845; graduated B.A. in 1842 with a third class in classical finals, proceeding M.A. in 1845, and B.D. in 1852 (Foster, Al. Oxon.). He was fellow of his college from 1845 till 1864, and public examiner in law and modern history in 1859-60.
Though he was ordained by Dr. Bethell, bishop of Bangor, in 1843, and served a curacy till 1845 at Tremeirchion, he held no preferment. Coming under the influence of the Tractarians, he maintained an occasional correspondence with Newman long after the latter seceded to Rome. In 1847 Owen edited, for the Anglo-Catholic Library, John Johnson's work on 'The Unbloody Sacrifice,' which had been first issued in 1714. He reached the view that establishment and endowment were all but fatal to the 'catholic' character of the Church of England, and in 1893 he joined a few other Welsh clergymen in discussing such proposed legislation as would restore to the church her independent liberty in the appointment of bishops and secure some voice to the parochial laity.
In 1864, owing to an allegation of immorality, he was called upon to resign his fellowship. He was at that time probably the most learned scholar on the foundation. He shortly afterwards retired to Bronygraig, Barmouth, in which district he owned considerable property. There he died unmarried on 6 April 1902, and was buried at Llanaber, Owen's original works were: 1. 'An Introduction to the Study of Dogmatic Theology,' 1858; 2nd edit. 1887. 2. 'The Pilgrimage to Rome: a Poem,' Oxford, 1863. 3. 'Sanctorale Catholicum, or Book of Saints,' 1880: 'a sort of Anglican canon of saints, especially strong in local British saints.' 4. 'An Essay on the Communion of Saints, together with an Examination of the Cultus Sanctorum,' 1881; nearly the whole issue perished in a fire at the publishers. 5. 'Institutes of Canon Law,' 1884, written at the instance of Dr. Walter Kerr Hamilton, bishop of Salisbury. 6. 'The Kymry: their Origin, History, and International Relations,' Carmarthen, 1891.
[The Times, 10 April 1902; T. R. Roberts, Dict. of Eminent Welshmen, 1907, p. 386; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
