Guthlac Overton, Gent. New Article published in NEHGR today

Anyone interested in Overton Genealogy may want to check the new issue of NEHGR which just came out today and can be downloaded here:

https://www.americanancestors.org/browse/publications/the-register

Clifford L. Stott, In Search of “Mr.” Overton: The Ancestry of Rev. Valentine Overton and His Connections to New England Immigrants Rev. Peter Bulkeley, Elizabeth (St. John) Whiting, Martha (Bulkeley) Mellowes, Olive (Welby) Farwell, Rev. Thomas James, Daniel Clark, Rev. Josias Clark, Isabel (Overton) Huit, Elizabeth (Bulkeley) (Whittingham) Hough, William Quarles, and Joanna (Quarles) Smith, in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society), 172:221+, Jul 2018.
GuthlacC Overton (WilliamD), gentleman, royal auditor, solicitor,
and Member of Parliament, was born about 1478 (age 57 in 1535). He died
in Clerkenwell, Middlesex, on 20 April 1536.[49]
Guthlac married Olive
Browne, daughter of Robert and Isabel (Sharpe) Browne of Walcott,
Northamptonshire. Olive’s sister Isabel and her husband George Quarles
were the great-grandparents of Francis Quarles, a famous sixteenth-century
poet, whose daughter Joanna Quarles was the wife of Richard Smith of Lyme,
Connecticut, and first cousin once removed of William Quarles of Ipswich,
Massachusetts.[50]
Guthlac’s unusual name, sometimes written Cuthlac and Goodlake, suggests
a possible but unproven origin for the Overtons of Swineshead. The name is
found primarily in Lincolnshire, where St. Guthlac of Crowland (674–715)
is venerated. Crowland Abbey, which was dedicated to St. Guthlac and two
other saints, lies 22 miles south of Swineshead. Thomas Overton (sometimes
Thomas of Overton) was abbot of Crowland Abbey 1392–1417. Anthony
Overton was a monk there in 1534.[51]
Guthlac’s relationship to Thomas and
Anthony, both family names, is unknown, but a kinship seems likely.
The earliest known record of Guthlac Overton was his confirmation as one
of two auditors of the Duchy of Cornwall on 17 November 1508.[52]
Guthlac
had a long career as a royal auditor, whose charge was to examine the accounts
of the Crown. He seems to have been highly favored and held numerous

positions of trust both inside and outside of government.[53]
In 1509 he was
appointed deputy auditor for the Duchy of Lancaster south region.[54]
He was
also versed in the law. While serving as a Duchy official, he was also solicitor
to Sir John Sharpe, his wife’s uncle.[55]
He was admitted to Lincoln’s Inn on 20
August 1510.[56]
In the 1523 lay subsidy for members of the inn, Guthlac was
assessed at £100, one of the wealthiest of the fellows.[57]
About 1510 Guthlac was appointed auditor general and later solicitor for
the Priory of the Knights Hospitaller, also known as the Order of St. John of
Jerusalem. The order was originally established to provide money, support,
and manpower for the crusading armies in the Holy Land, financing its efforts
with its extensive estates in England. The order, which was headquartered
in Clerkenwell, Middlesex, played a significant political role in royal affairs.
Guthlac soon moved to the priory. On 10 July 1511, the priory leased a
garden to him, and by April 1516 he also held a lease on a stable there.[58]
Guthlac remained associated with the order for the rest of his life. He died in
Clerkenwell owning a house on St. John Street.
In 1519 he became Auditor General of the English Priory, and in the same
year he leased the manor of Temple Rockley, Wiltshire, from the order.
“Goodlake” Overton was called a farmer of Temple Rokeley manor on 20
October 1519, but he soon conveyed his rights there to John Goddard. In 1512
he was appointed general senechal of the English Priory, a position that put
him in charge of ceremonies and feasts.[59]
In 1515 Guthlac Overton and John Turnour, his wife’s stepfather, were
confirmed as auditors in survivorship of the Duchy of Cornwall.[60]
The
same year, Guthlac and Sir John Sharpe were granted the tribulage (poll
tax on the tin miners) in the hundreds of Penrith and Kerr in Cornwall.[61]
In 1522 Guthlac Overton, “gentleman of the chamber doors and king’s
auditor,” obtained a twenty-one-year lease on the toll of tin on Crown lands
in the manor of Tywarnayle Ties, Cornwall.[62]
Besides the family estates in
Lincolnshire inherited from his brother Thomas, Guthlac acquired an interest
in a messuage called “le Shippe over the Hope” with a garden in the parish
St. Clement Danes, Middlesex, in 1514.[63]
In 1522 he became a tenant of the
demesne lands of the manor of Mere, Wiltshire, which was owned by the
Duchy of Cornwall.[64]
In 1525 he leased the manor of Kingsbury, Middlesex,
from the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.[65]
Guthlac’s service as solicitor to Sir John Sharpe obligated Sir John to pay
Guthlac’s costs in all causes. After Sir John’s death in 1518, Guthlac brought
suit against Sharpe’s executors, alleging that Sir John had put his nephew
Robert Browne, a younger brother of Guthlac’s wife, to board and lodge with
Guthlac and to teach him the faculty of auditorship. Robert remained with
Guthlac for two years. Sir John promised to pay him ten marks a year but died
before payment was made, and the executors now refused to pay the debt.[66]
The executors, John Turnour, George Quarles, and Hugh Edwards, were all
royal servants and were well known to Guthlac Overton. Quarles was married
to Isabel Browne, sister of Guthlac’s wife Olive.[67]
Edwards was married to
Anne Sharpe, Olive’s aunt. Turnour was Olive’s stepfather.
In 1529 and again in 1536, Guthlac represented Wallingford, Berkshire,
in the House of Commons. It appears that he held no land in Wallingford
or vicinity. Many of the small boroughs were represented in the House of
Commons by royal servants nominated by the Crown. In June 1533 he was
admitted to the freedom of London and was its auditor.[68]
Guthlac Overton died intestate. His widow Olive was appointed to administer
the estate, but this was not completed at the time of her death in 1546. Many
years later, on 3 March 1559/60, Edward Overton was appointed successor
administrator to the remaining estate of his father “Cuthlac” Overton, late
of St. John’s Street.[69]
Guthlac’s inquisition post mortem, taken in Boston 28
May 1537, shows that he died seized of much land in Lincolnshire. Many of
these parcels were inherited from his brother Thomas. Guthlac’s Swineshead
property included four messuages, six cottages, two tofts, 50 acres of land,
70 acres of pasture, 10 acres of marsh, and 4 acres of wood. Smaller holdings
were held in the nearby parishes of Bicker, Wigtoft, and Moulton. Edward,
the eldest son and next heir, was 15 years and more at the time of the inquisition.[70]
Olive Overton of Clerkenwell died between 19 December 1545 and 7 June
1546, the dates of the execution and probate of her will. Ten of Olive’s children
were mentioned by name in the will: Katherine, Rose, Mary, Martha, Edward,
John, Isabel wife of John Cordall, William, Clement, and Harry, the last three
were said to be “at scoole.”[71]
Two other sons — Richard and Anthony — are
documented in the 1566 heralds’ visitation pedigree, cited above.
Children of Guthlac and Olive (Browne) Overton, probably born in Clerkenwell
(order uncertain):

etc

Guthlac Overton, Gent.
Guthlac Overton, Gent.