EVANS, LEWIS (c. 1700 - 1756), cartographer
Date of birth: c. 1700
Date of death: 1756
Spouse: Martha Evans (née Hoskins)
Child: Amelia Evans
Gender: Male
Occupation: cartographer
Area of activity: Art and Architecture; Engineering, Construction, Naval Architecture and Surveying; Travel and Exploration
Author: Mary Gwyneth Lewis
Believed to have been born in the parish of Llangwnnad, Caernarfonshire. He became a land surveyor in Pennsylvania. In 1749 he published A Map of Pensilvania, New Jersey, New York and the three Delaware counties, including notes on thunder and lightning (revised ed. 1752). His most notable map is A General Map of the Middle British Colonies in America (1755); boundary disputes were decided on its authority and much use was made of it during the Seven Years War. In the Analysis which was published with the map the author expressed his opinion on the French claim to land which led to severe criticism in an anonymous article in The New York Mercury, 5 January 1756, to which Evans responded within five days by publishing a second treatise. He had intended publishing maps of all the separate states, but he died 12 June 1756 before completing the task; he was at the time in custody in New York on a charge of libel against the governor Robert Hunter Morris. His map was used unacknowledged many times between 1755 and 1814 by London map publishers. In 1776 it was published in America by Thomas Pownall with his Topographical Description of North America to aid Evans' family which was in straightened circumstances.
He married in 1743 Martha Hoskins (died c. 1746) at Christ Church, Philadelphia and they had a daughter, Amelia (and possibly other children).
Author
- Mary Gwyneth Lewis, (1912 - 1999)
- Henry N. Stevens, Lewis Evans, His Map of the Middle British Colonies in America; a comparitive account of eighteen different editions published betwwen 1755 and 1814 (2nd ed. 1920)
- Dictionary of American Biography, (1931)
- C. A. W. Pownall, Thomas Pownall, governor of Massachusetts Bay, author of The letters of Junius with a supplement comparing the colonies of Kings George III and Edward VII (1908)
- P. L. Phillips, A List of Geographical Atlases in the Library of Congress (Washington 1909-20)
- Cat. of the Printed Maps, Plans and Charts in the British Museum (1885)
- Lawrence Henry Gipson, Lewis Evans to which is added Evans' A brief account of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia 1939)
- Gwreiddiau Gwynedd Roots, April 1987
- Y Casglwr pob peth printiedig, 34, March 1988
Sources
- BBC cymrufyw: Cymro wnaeth roi America ar y map (accessed August 2019)
- Wikipedia Article: Lewis Evans
Further Reading
Published date: 2001
Article Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/
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