marriage to a cousin, Elizabeth Evans, when he was presented to the living of Criggion, Montgomeryshire. This, however, he resigned in order to live at Burton Court, Leominster, which his wife had inherited, and to hold the sole charge of the parish of Monkland. In 1841 he was appointed prebendary of Hereford and prælector of the cathedral. After holding Monkland for eighteen years, in 1850 Evans accepted the living of Madley with Tibberton, Herefordshire. In 1861 he became canon of Hereford Cathedral. His health failed for the last two or three years of his life, and he died in the Close, Hereford, 21 Nov. 1869.
Evans possessed a lively apprehension of natural objects and beauties, some wit, and a fair amount of reading. He was an eloquent and effective preacher, a careful student of animals, especially of birds, and an excellent angler. His chief work is ‘The Song of the Birds; or Analogies of Animal and Spiritual Life,’ 1845, 8vo, in which the habits of birds are shown to be instinct with higher lessons. Thus their ‘rising and soaring,’ he states, is emblematical of the ‘spiritual flights of the renewed spirit.’ The introduction displays much observation, and has been rightly called ‘full of grace and beauty;’ but the versification falls short of his aim, although its sentiments are frequently elevated, and a pure and religious strain of thought everywhere pervades it. The twenty-two chapters on our chief song birds show the minute carefulness and accuracy of Evans's powers of observation. Besides this he wrote ‘Sermons on Genesis,’ ‘Family Prayers,’ ‘First Revelations of God to Man’ (Sermons), and a ‘Letter to the Bishop [of Hereford] on Diocesan Education,’ 1850, with one or two occasional sermons. He left one daughter and three sons, one of whom is the present vicar of Holmer, Herefordshire.
[Athenæum, 19 July 1845; Luard's Graduati Cantabr. p. 170; Crockford's Clerical Directory, 1860; information from his son, the Rev. E. A. Evans.]
EVANSON, EDWARD (1731–1805), divine, was born at Warrington 21 April 1731. His uncle, John Evanson, rector of Mitcham, Surrey, educated him, and sent him to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, in 1745. He took the degree of B.A. 1749, and M.A. 1753. He took orders, and became curate to his uncle, who apparently kept a school. In 1768 he became vicar of South Mimms, near Barnet. In 1769 Lord-chancellor Camden gave him the vicarage of Tewkesbury, at the request of John Dodd, M.P. for Reading. Hurd introduced Evanson, as a member of his own college, to Warburton, who, upon the strength of Hurd's introduction, gave him also the perpetual curacy of Tredington, Worcestershire, and in August 1770 he exchanged South Mimms for Longdon in Worcestershire. Here Evanson began to show unitarian leanings. He wrote to the Archbishop of Canterbury (Cornwallis), who was supposed, with other dignitaries of the church, to be contemplating some changes in the liturgy. Evanson hoped that the Nicene and Athanasian creeds would not be retained until his objections to them had been considered. He begged that the archbishop would show him how to surmount his scruples if they were groundless. The archbishop did not reply. Evanson adapted the liturgy to his own opinions. A sermon upon the Resurrection on Easter day (31 March 1771) gave additional offence, and a prosecution was instituted by Neast Havard, town clerk of Tewkesbury, and others in the consistory court. Evanson published anonymously in 1772 a pamphlet upon ‘The Doctrines of a Trinity and the Incarnation of God.’ One of the witnesses for the prosecution stated that Evanson explained, on being reproached for retaining his living, that he ‘had not learnt the art of starving,’ and that the care ‘of a great school’ had prevented him from properly examining his opinions until he was fixed in the ‘corrupt church.’ The case was heard before the Bishop of Gloucester on 16 Jan. 1775. Some technical objections led to the failure of the prosecution; but appeals were made to the court of arches, and afterwards to the court of delegates. Evanson was popular in the parish. The principal inhabitants of Tewkesbury subscribed to pay his expenses, and the people of Longdon expressed their willingness to accept his alterations of the services. Wedderburne, the solicitor-general, defended him gratuitously, and on 31 May 1775 appointed him his chaplain. In 1777 he published ‘A Letter to Dr. Hurd, bishop of Worcester,’ in which he argues that either the christian revelation is false, or every church in Europe, and especially the church of England, is ‘false and fabulous.’ He relies upon the argument from the prophecies, which, according to him, foretell the great apostasy of trinitarianism. This utterance was naturally followed by the resignation of his living. His letter to the bishop is dated 22 March 1778. He now returned to Mitcham, and set up a school. Colonel Evelyn James Stuart, son of the Earl of Bute, the father of one of his pupils, settled an annuity upon him, which was paid till his death. Evanson held family services, using Samuel Clarke's version of the liturgy, with additional changes of his own. He administered the Lord's
