Author: Evans, Evan
Biography:
EVANS, Evan (1731-88: ODNB)
pseudonym Ieuan Fordd
The son of Jenkin and Catherine Evans, he was born at Cynhawdref farm in Lledrod, Cardiganshire, Wales, on 20 May 1731. (The mutilated condition of the baptismal record makes it impossible to verify this date but it is given in both ODNB and DWB.) Evans was educated by the poet and academic Edward Richard at his Ystrad Meurig school in Cardiganshire and he also came into contact with another Welsh poet and patriot, Lewis Morris, whose enthusiasms he adopted as his own. He matriculated at Merton College, Oxford, on 8 Dec. 1750 but left without taking a degree. He was ordained deacon in 1754 and priest in 1755 before beginning a career of moving from one curacy to another in quick succession; ODNB estimates that he held at least eighteen different appointments in both England and Wales. Evans became increasingly interested in Welsh manuscripts which he collected, copied, and translated; through his contacts with antiquarians doing similar work, he was introduced to Thomas Percy (q.v.) and the two men corresponded frequently. In 1764 he published his Some Specimens of the Antient Welsh Bards. In the same year he wrote “The Grievances of the Principality of Wales in the Church Considered” but it was considered unpublishable. His deeply-felt concerns about both the Anglicisation of the established church in Wales and the decline of Welsh learning may have been behind his lack of promotion in the church. From 1771 to 1778 he was helped by Sir Watkin Williams Wynn who awarded him a pension and allowed him to use the extensive library at his home, Wynnstay. (The Love of Country is addressed to Sir Watkin, MP for Shropshire.) During the last ten years of his life he suffered from depression and poor health—not helped by his excessive consumption of alcohol—and his appeals for financial aid, including by offering his collected manuscripts for sale, were mostly fruitless. The manuscripts were sold finally in 1787, the year before his death. Evans died at the farmhouse where he was born on 4 Aug. 1788 and was buried in the churchyard at Lledrod. DWB describes him as “undoubtedly the greatest Welsh scholar of his age.” (ODNB 16 May 2024; Alumni Oxonienses; DWB 17 May 2024; ancestry.co.uk 16 May 2024) SR