Major-General Robert Overton c. 1609 to 1678, was a member of the landed gentry from Yorkshire, who fought for Parliament during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, and reached the rank of Major General in 1652. A committed republican and religious Independent who sympathised with the Fifth Monarchists, like others with similar views, he opposed the establishment of The Protectorate, and was held in the Tower of London from 1655 to 1659

A close friend of the poet John Milton, Overton was the author of various articles and pamphlets, as well as poetry written for his wife Anne. Despite his strong views, he was a political realist whose religious beliefs helped him endure long periods of imprisonment, once noting that “There are given to us exceeding great and precious promises; if in patience we possess our spirits, we shall inherit the promises"