Born
at Ysgaerwen, near Llandyssil (15 miles east southeast of Cardigan, [Wales]),
December 25, 1766; death at Swansea July 19, 1838. Through the death of his
father, a shoemaker, he was left destitute at the age of nine. After six
unhappy years spent with his mother's uncle he became a farm hand. Through
the influence of David Davies, a preacher and school-teacher, he joined the
Presbyterian church at Llwynrhydowen, and soon afterward began to preach.
In 1788 he joined the Baptist church at Aberduar and in 1789 was ordained
pastor at Lleyn. In 1792 he went to Anglesey, where for many years he ruled
over the Baptist churches; his salary was seventeen pounds a year. For a
time he was a victim of the "Sandemanian heresy," but later he regained his
orthodoxy. Finally the churches of Anglesey rebelled against his despotic
government, and in 1826 he went to Caerphilly. In 1828 he removed to Cardiff,
and in 1832 to Carnarvon, his last pastorate. Evans was a man of ardent piety
and a great and powerful preacher. His brethren called him the "Bunyan of
Wales." His Sermons have been frequently published in Welsh (English
translation with memoir, by Joseph Crow, Philadelphia, 1854).
Bibliography: Biographies have been written by: D. R. Stephens, London, 1847; D. M. Evans, ib. 1863; E. P. Hood, New York, 1901. Consult also DNB, xviii. 57-58.
From The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge... New York: Funk and Wagnalls Company, 1909.
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