Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 42.djvu/381

Overall a solicitor in 1837, he became a partner in the well-known firm of Robinson, King, & Ouvry, in Tokenhouse Yard, but afterwards joined the firm of his brothers-in-law, the Messrs. Farrers, at 66 Lincoln's Inn Fields. On 24 Feb. 1848 he was elected fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and was placed on the council of the society in 1850, while for twenty years (1854–74) he filled the office of treasurer. On his resignation he was made vice-president, and on 4 Jan. 1876 was unanimously elected president in grateful recognition of his administrative services. He retired in 1878. He presented the society with many valuable books, and a remarkable portrait of William Oldys [q. v.]

Ouvry was likewise a member of the Weavers' Company, one of the treasurers of the Royal Literary Fund, and a member of other literary societies. Foremost among his literary friends was Charles Dickens, who depicted him in a paper in ‘Household Words’ as ‘Mr. Undery.’ He died suddenly at 12 Queen Anne Street on 26 June 1881, and was buried at Acton.

His fine library of manuscripts, autograph letters, and printed books, including the first four folios of ‘Shakespeare,’ was sold in April 1882, and produced 6,169l. 2s. A catalogue of his collection of old ballads, compiled by T. W. Newton, was printed in 1887. He contributed two papers to the ‘Archæologia’ (xxxv. 379–82 and xxxvi. 219–41), but his literary tastes were not confined to antiquarian science. There was no literary undertaking of mark which he was not ready to promote. He himself frequently printed facsimiles of rare publications, of which only one copy was known. These include: 1. ‘The Cobler of Canterburie,’ 1862. 2. T. Eulenspiegel's ‘Howleglas,’ 1867. 3. G. Markham's ‘The Famous Whore,’ 1868. 4. T. Cranley's ‘Amanda,’ 1869. 5. ‘Petitions and Answers,’ being pieces printed in 1668, 1870. 6. ‘Letters addressed to T. Hearne,’ 1874. 7. J. Singer's ‘Quips upon Questions,’ 1875. 8. N. Breton's ‘The Passionate Shepherd,’ 1877.

A bust of Ouvry, executed by Marshall Wood, was given to the Society of Antiquaries by his family. It had been presented to him by his clients, the Messrs. Coutts.

 OVERALL, JOHN, D.D. (1560–1619), bishop of Norwich, younger son of George Overall (d. July 1561), was born at Hadleigh, Suffolk, and baptised on 2 March 1560. He was educated at Hadleigh grammar school, where John Bois [q. v.] was his schoolfellow. With Bois he entered at St. John's College, Cambridge, in 1575, and, having graduated B.A., was admitted scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge, on 18 April 1578. The registers of Trinity show the steps of his advance: minor fellow, 2 Oct. 1581; major fellow, 30 March 1582; fourth lector, 2 Oct. 1583; third prælector, 2 Oct. 1585; ‘prælector Græcus,’ 2 Oct. 1586; ‘prælector mathematicus,’ 2 Oct. 1588; seneschal, 17 Dec. 1589; junior dean, 14 Oct. 1591; ‘prælector primarius,’ 2 Oct. 1595; senior fellow, 6 May 1596, and at the same time regius professor of theology and D.D. He had taken orders by 1592, when he was presented to the vicarage of Epping, Essex, by Sir Thomas Heneage (d. 1595) [q. v.] He was not given to preaching. Fuller informs us that Overall told his father, Thomas Fuller the elder, with whom he was very intimate, that, having to preach before the queen, ‘he had spoken Latin so long it was troublesome to him to speak English in a continued oration.’

Overall showed himself a moderate man in matters of Calvinistic controversy, and came into collision with William Perkins (1558–1602) [q. v.], who carried Calvinism to an extreme. Hence his election to the regius professorship of theology (which he held till 1607), in succession to William Whitaker, D.D. (1548–1595) [q. v.], was a sign of protest against the theology of the Lambeth articles (20 Nov. 1595) drawn up by Whitgift in concert with Whitaker and others. When the doctrine of these nine articles was impugned (1596) by Peter Baro [q. v.], Overall ‘freely and openly confessed his consent with him.’ At Easter 1598 he was appointed to the mastership of Catharine Hall, Cambridge, which he held till 1607. His elevation to the deanery of St. Paul's on 29 May 1602 (holding with it the prebend of Totendale in St. Paul's Cathedral), in the room of Alexander Nowell [q. v.], was on the recommendation of Sir Fulke Greville [q. v.] It enabled him to take an important part in the ecclesiastical settlement which followed the death of Elizabeth. In 1603 he received the rectory of Clothall, Hertfordshire (which he held till 1615), and in 1604 the rectory of Therfield, Hertfordshire (which he held till 1614); both were served by curates. At the Hampton Court conference he spoke (16 Jan. 1604) on the controversy concerning predestination, referring to the disputes in which he had been engaged at Cambridge, and won the approval of James. On the same day the puritan champion, John Rainolds D.D. [q.v.],