Philadelphia Anglican clergyman second rector of Christ Church
Evan Evans was born in Carnoc, Montgomery County, Wales, son of Evan David Evans (Joseph Foster, Alumni Oxonienses, Early Series). His family must have been without property, for he matriculated on March 12, 1692 at St. Alban Hall, Oxford, as a pauper scholar and a batteler, a rank between that of a commoner and a servitor.
During his first year at Oxford he was fortunate in securing an Ogle scholarship which gave him some slight financial help. In 1695 he received the degree of B. A. from Brasenose College.
In 1700 the Bishop of London sent him out to the colonies as rector of Christ Church, Philadelphia. For about seventeen years he served that church, receiving only the Royal bounty of £50 and whatever contributions the church members chose to make. At the same time he preached without compensation at Montgomery and Radnor, and introduced services in Chester, Chichester, Concord, Oxford, and Perkiomen. Before 1707, largely as a result of his effort and enthusiasm, churches were built at Oxford, Chester, and Newcastle. He preached so persuasively in his native tongue that he kept many Welsh communities from turning non-conformist; and under his influence large numbers of Quakers forsook their own faith and joined the Anglican Church. His interest extended to the other colonies. He conferred with fellow churchmen in New York, and constantly urged the authorities in England to send a bishop to the colonies. His letters are examples of scholarly English and forceful argument, but he was unable to secure a bishop for the American church. The Bishop of London recognized Evans’s ability as a preacher, and in 1707, when the Rector was in England, recommended him to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts as a missionary to Welshmen in America. At that time Queen Anne presented him with communion plate for his church in Philadelphia. The necessity of enlarging the Philadelphia church in 1711 is another evidence of his success in that community. According to the vestry minutes of Christ Church, he continued to act as rector in Philadelphia until 1718 when he resigned from all his labors in Pennsylvania and accepted a presentment by the governor of Maryland to the church of Spesutia in St. George’s Parish, near the present village of Perryman, Harford County. By his will, dated May 25, 172т, and proved on November 10 of the same year, he left a small personal estate and fifteen hundred acres of land in Philadelphia.
He was survived by his wife, Alice, and an only child, a daughter, who had married an English rector by the name of Lloyd.
