EVANS, JOHN (1768 - c. 1812), topographical writer

probably the son of Benjamin Evans, clergyman, of Lydney, Gloucestershire. (He is sometimes confused with John Evans, a Bristol schoolmaster who wrote topographical works relating to Bristol and philosophical treatises.) Evans matriculated at Jesus College, Oxford, 1789 (B.A. 1792). Little is known about him beyond his writings - four works descriptive of and based on tours in Wales. They were (a) A Tour through part of North Wales in … 1798 and at other times: principally undertaken with a view to Botanical researches in that alpine country; interspersed with observations on its Scenery, Agriculture, Manufactures (London, 1800, with other editions in 1802 and 1804); (b) Letters written during a Tour through South Wales in … 1803 and at other times, 1804; (c) ' Monmouthshire ' in vol. xi of The Beauties of England and Wales, 1810; and (d) ' North Wales ' in vol. xvii of the same series, 1812; he was to have written on South Wales but died after completing a small part of the work. Although full of interesting detail, his works seem to have been based more upon reading than upon observation. His account of coal-mining methods in Pembrokeshire, in his Tour through South Wales, 1804, for example, was a paraphrase, in 19th century wording, of what George Owen of Henllys had written two centuries before. He died c. 1812, i.e. before the publication in 1815 of vol. xvii of The Beauties of England and Wales.

Author

• Frederick John North, (1889 - 1968)

Sources

• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
• T. R. Roberts, Eminent Welshmen: a short biographical dictionary of Welshmen... from the earliest times to the present (1908)
• T. Rees, The beauties of England and Wales (1815), xvii
• T. Rees, A topographical and historical description of South Wales (1815), v-vi

Further Reading

• Wikipedia Article: John Evans

Additional Links

• VIAF: 67956405
• Wikidata: Q6232019

Published date: 1959

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