EVANS, THOMAS (1739-1803),), and EVANS, THOMAS (1742-1784), two London booksellers,
Date of birth: 1739
Date of death: 1803
Gender: Male
Occupation: booksellers
Area of activity: Business and Industry; Literature and Writing
Author: Robert Thomas Jenkins
are commemorated in the D.N.B.
The elder Thomas Evans is famous for his fight with Oliver Goldsmith (1773). He is usually called 'a Welshman ', and is said, in the D.N.B., to have been born in Wales, but confirmation of this is lacking - unless, indeed, the fact that Goldsmith had to pay £50 'to a Welsh charity' (presumably the Welsh Charity-school) may be so regarded.
The younger Thomas Evans is nowhere specifically called a Welshman, though he did, in 1774, publish a new edition of the History of Wales by William Wynne. But remembering that his place of business was in the Strand, one may feel inclined to identify him with the ' Thomas Evans, Strand ', who was a member of the Cymmrodorion Society in 1778. His qualification for membership then was that he had a ' Welsh father'; this description implies that he was not himself born in Wales.
Author
- Emeritus Professor Robert Thomas Jenkins, (1881 - 1969)
Published date: 1959
Article Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/
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