EVANS
,
JOHN
(
1768
-
c.
1812
;
DWB
, 242).
Amend the volume number from xviii to xvii in the last line and in the bibliography.
Corrections and additions:
EVANS
,
JOHN
(
1768
-
c.
1812
),
topographical writer
;
probably the son of
Benjamin
Evans
,
clergyman
, of
Lydney, Glos.
(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 d. 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 cent.
wording, of what
George
Owen
of
Henllys
(q.v.)
had written two centuries before. He d.
c.
1812
, i.e. before the publication in
1815
of vol. xviii of
The Beauties of England and Wales
.
Bibliography:
-
Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography
;
-
Eminent Welshmen
, 1908
;
-
T. Rees
,
The beauties of England and Wales
,
1815
, xviii,
A topographical and historical description
of South Wales
, 1815
,
1815
, v-vi.
Author:
Frederick John North, O.B.E., D.Sc., F.G.S., F.S.A., F.M.A.,
(1889-1968), Cardiff
