Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Evans, John (1840-1897)
EVANS, JOHN, 'Eglwysbach' (1840–1897), Welsh Wesleyan divine, was the eldest son of David and Margaret Evans of Tydu, a small farm in the parish of Eglwysbach, Denbighshire, where he was born on 28 Sept. 1840. The name of his native parish became associated with him throughout his lifetime, and was the name by which he was always popularly known among Welshmen. He was educated at the national school of the parish, after leaving which he acted as his father's shepherd, utilising his spare time for private study. Having, however, commenced to preach in his seventeenth year, he was regularly accepted as a candidate for the ministry in 1860, but owing to an illness was unable to proceed to a theological college. His first appointment was that of local preacher in Anglesey (1861-3), whence he went to Mold in 1863, and was fully ordained in 1865. His subsequent charges were : Liverpool, 1866-9 and 1872-1878; Bangor, 1869-72 and 1886-9; Oswestry, 1889-90; and London, 1878-86 and 1890-3. During his earlier sojourns in Liverpool and London he strove hard to make up for the loss of a collegiate training by attending evening classes, and he thus became an associate of King's College, London. In 1884 he was elected a member of the legal hundred of the Wesleyan conference, and in 1895 became chairman of the South Wales district. During the last four years of his life he organised and vigorously conducted a 'forward movement' mission in Glamorgan, its headquarters being at Pontypridd. So successful did his work prove that arrangements had been made to enable him to exchange it in another year for that of peripatetic evangelist for all Wales. But the strain of the Glamorgan mission proved too great for even his robust constitution, and though a cruise in the Mediterranean for a time revived him after a threatened collapse in 1896, he had early in 1897 to abandon all his literary work, including the editorship of his monthly magazine, 'Y Fwyell' ('The Battle-Axe'), which he had started as the organ of the mission. He did not, however, slacken or diminish his other public work, and on 23 Oct. 1897 he died suddenly of failure of the heart at Liverpool (where he had gone to preach), and was buried there on the 27th at Anfield cemetery.
He married first, in 1873, Charlotte (d. 1884), daughter of John Prichard of Liverpool; and secondly, in 1886, Clara Kate, daughter of James Richardson of Duke Street, Manchester Square, London, who by lecturing and conducting mission services shared the burden of her husband's evangelistic work. Both she and a family of six children survive him. He is commemorated at Pontypridd by a memorial chapel, erected by public subscriptions drawn from all parts of Wales.
'Eglwysbach' takes rank among the greatest of Welsh pulpit orators, and was probably the most eloquent that Wesleyan methodism has hitherto produced in Wales. While in Liverpool he was often styled 'the Welsh Spurgeon,' but in manner he bore a greater resemblance to Punshon. Great earnestness of purpose and a consuming missionary zeal characterised his utterances, while a noble presence and a childlike frankness and buoyancy contributed to that magnetic charm which made him universally loved throughout all denominations in Wales. He had strong literary tastes, and his output as a Welsh writer was considerable, having regard to his activity as preacher and lecturer. His most important work was a Welsh biography of John Wesley (Holywell, 1880), a revised translation of whose sermons he also brought out in 1887. His other works include a translation of 'The Human Will' by Dr. H. P. Tappan (Blaenau Ffestiniog, 1872); a short life of Howell Harries; four volumes of sermons delivered in London ('Pulpud Cymreig City Road,' London and Holywell, 1883-7), and a work on the 'Life and Epistles of St. Paul' (Holywell, 1889). A volume of sermons and lectures which he had partly prepared for the press was issued after his death (Bangor, 1898). He contributed largely to the magazines of his own connection, and edited both 'Y Winllan' and 'Y Fwyell' for periods of three years each. In the latter there appeared in 1896-1897 (vols. ii. and iii.) a long series of autobiographical chapters which he did not live to complete.
[In addition to the autobiography referred to above, a memorial number of Yr Eurgrawn Wesleyaidd (Wesleyan Magazine) was issued (with portrait) shortly after his death. See also Minutes of Conference, 1898, p. 21; Y Geninen for 1898, and March 1900; Methodist Recorder, 29 Oct. 1897; Methodist Times, 29 Oct. 1897; Carnarvon Herald, 2 Nov. 1897; The Christian, 9 Dec. 1897. For his works see Cardiff Welsh Library Cat. p. 177. A full biography is being written by the Eev. Thomas Hughes of Tregarth, Bangor.]