OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Evans, Theophilus

​EVANS, THEOPHILUS (1694–1767), divine, born in 1694, near Newcastle Emlyn, Carmarthenshire, was the fifth son of Charles Evans of Pen y Wenalt, Cardiganshire. He was probably educated at Shrewsbury; he was ordained deacon in 1718, and priest in 1719, by the Bishop of St. David's. He was domestic chaplain to the Gwyns of Garth. In 1728 the Bishop of St. David's gave him the small rectory of Llanynis, Brecknockshire, which he resigned in 1738 on being presented to the rectory of Llangammarch. From 1739 till his death he held the living of St. David's in Llanfaes. In 1763 he resigned Llangammarch to his son-in-law, Hugh Jones. He died in 1767.
He married Alice Bevan, by whom he had three sons and two daughters. One of the daughters married Hugh Jones, and became the mother of Theophilus Jones, author of the history of Brecknockshire.
Evans's works are: 1. ‘Pwll i Pader,’ 1739. A Welsh comment on the Lord's Prayer in a series of sermons after the manner of Bishop Blackall. 2. ‘Drych y Prif Oesoedd,’ 1739. A very popular book on Welsh antiquities, which is said to have gone through thirty editions, and was translated into English as a ‘View of the Primitive Ages.’ It is utterly unhistorical, begins from the Tower of Babel, and declares Arthur to be as real as Alexander. 3. ‘History of Modern Enthusiasm, from the Reformation to Present Times,’ 1752 and 1759. An attack upon ‘enthusiasts,’ fifth-monarchy men, French prophets, methodists, &c. Evans's grandson says that he was the mildest and simplest of men, and on friendly terms with the dissenters whom he assailed in this book.
[Theophilus Jones's History of Brecknockshire, pp. 274–5; Life prefixed to Primitive Ages.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Evans, John (d.1779)

​EVANS, JOHN (d. 1779), curate of Portsmouth, was born at Meini Gwynion, Llanarth, Cardiganshire, and was educated at Oxford. His first curacy was that of Llanarth, whence he removed to Portsmouth. The author of the ‘Welsh Bibliography’ supposed him to have been the Ioan Evans who translated Dr. Jabez Earle's ‘Meditations on the Sacraments,’ 1735; his ‘Harmony of the Four Gospels’ was published in 1765. This was the first work published in Welsh to expound any portion of the Bible, being fifteen years earlier than that of Peter Williams. He is supposed to have seen through the press the Welsh bible of 1769 (twenty thousand copies); he translated Bishop Gastrell's ‘Christian Institutes,’ 1773. A second edition of the ‘Harmony’ was published in 1804.
R. J. J.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Evans, Lewis (1755-1827)

​EVANS, LEWIS (1755–1827), mathematician, son of the Rev. Thomas Evans of Bassaleg, Monmouthshire, was born in 1755 (Foster, Alumni Oxon. 1715–1886, p. 435). He was matriculated at Merton College, Oxford, 16 Dec. 1774, but left the university without a degree. In 1777 he was ordained by the Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, his first curacy being that of Ashbury, Berkshire, where he served until 6 July 1778. He then commenced residence as curate of Compton, Berkshire, and continued there until 1788, in which year he received institution to the vicarage of Froxfield, Wiltshire. He held the living until his death. In 1799 he was appointed first mathematical master at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, in which post he laboured until 1820. In addition to a competent knowledge of various sciences, he had turned much of his attention, in the latter part of his life, to astronomy. He possessed several valuable instruments, and for many years employed himself as a skilful and successful observer, having his own private observatory on Woolwich Common. To the ‘Philosophical Magazine’ he contributed the following dissertations: ‘An improved Demonstration of Newton's Binomial Theorem on Fluxional Principles’ (vol. xxiv.); ‘Observations of α Polaris for determining the North Polar Distance of that Star at the beginning of 1813’ (vol. xliii.); ‘Tables of the Sun's Altitude and Zenith Distance, for every day in the year’ (vol. lvi.); ‘The Solar Eclipse, observed on 7th Sept. 1820’ (vol. lvi.) Evans was elected F.R.S. 29 May 1823, and was also fellow of the Astronomical Society. He died at Froxfield 19 Nov. 1827 (Gent. Mag. vol. xcvii. pt. ii. p. 570). By his wife, Ann Norman, he was father of Thomas Simpson Evans [q. v.], and of Arthur Benoni Evans [q. v.]
[Information from John Evans, esq., F.R.S.; Royal Kalendars; Monthly Notices of the Astronomical Society of London, i. 53.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Evans, Philip

​EVANS, PHILIP (1645–1679), jesuit, a native of Monmouthshire, studied in the college at St. Omer, and entered the Society of Jesus 7 Sept. 1665. Having completed his noviceship at Watten and made his higher studies and theology at the English College, Liége, he was ordained priest, and sent to the mission in North Wales in 1675. Being a marked victim of the Oates plot persecution he was seized four years later at the house of his friend and patron, Christopher Turberville de Skene, esq., committed to prison, tried at the spring assizes 1679, condemned to death as a traitor for his priesthood, and executed at Cardiff on 22 July 1679. John Lloyd, a secular priest, suffered at the same time, and on the same account.
‘Short Memorandums’ upon their death appeared at London in 1679. There is a portrait of Evans engraved by Alexander Voet in Matthias Tanner's ‘Brevis Relatio felicis Agonis quem pro Religione Catholica gloriose subierunt aliquot e Societate Jesu Sacerdotes,’ Prague, 1683. Another portrait is in the print of Titus Oates in the pillory.
[Florus Anglo-Bavaricus, pp. 178–81; Challoner's Missionary Priests (1742), ii. 414; Evans's Cat. of Engraved Portraits, No. 15720; Granger's Biog. Hist. of England, 5th ed. v. 95; Foley's Records, v. 882–91, vii. 232 (with portrait); Cat. of Printed Books in Brit. Mus.; Oliver's Jesuit Collections, p. 86; Dodd's Church Hist. iii. 320; Kobber's Martyrer and Bekenner der Gesellschaft Jesu in England.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Evans, Lewis (fl.1574)

​EVANS, LEWIS (fl. 1574), controversialist, a native of Monmouthshire, was educated at Oxford, apparently at Christ Church, where he proceeded B.A. 1554, M.A. 1557, and B.D. 1562 (Oxf. Univ. Reg. Oxf. Hist. Soc. i. 223, 318). He afterwards removed to London, where his zeal in the Roman catholic cause brought him into trouble with Bishop Grindal, and he was forced to fly the country. He settled at Antwerp, and occupied himself in translating the ‘Tabulæ vigentium … hæreseon’ of Willem van der Lindt, bishop of Roermond, into English. This he published at Antwerp in 1565, with the title ‘The Betraying of the Beastliness of the Heretics,’ 12mo, and a defiant address to Grindal. Venturing back to London he was thrown into prison, but being afterwards reconciled to the church of England by some of his friends, ‘did, to shew his zeal for the love he had to it, write and publish a book as full of ill language against the Roman catholics as the other was full of good for them,’ entitled ‘The Castle of Christianitie, detecting the long erring estate, asvvell of the Romaine Church, as of the Byshop of Rome: together with the Defence of the Catholique Faith,’ 8vo, London, 1568. In dedicating his treatise to the queen he writes: ‘I my selfe haue once drunke (before your Maiesties great clemencie I confesse) of the puddell of ignorancy, of the mudde of idolatrie, of the ponde of superstition, of the lake of self will, blindenesse, disobedience, & obstinacie.’ It is not surprising that the book gave great offence to the Roman catholics, who reported that Evans, to use his own words, ‘had reuolted from the Gospell, & was agayne gonne beyonde the seas.’ These reports being constantly told to Evans while he was staying at Oxford, ‘not by any mean mã, but by the learnest,’ he found on reaching London ‘hovve yt vvas in the mouthes of manye, that he vvas deade.’ He thereupon published a still more virulent attack on the church of Rome, which he entitled ‘The Hatefull Hypocrisie and Rebellion of the Romishe Prelacie,’ 12mo, London, 1570. Evans wrote also: 1. ‘A short Treatise of the Mistery of the Eucharist,’ 8vo, London, 1569. 2. ‘A brief Answer to a short trifling Treatise of late set forth in the Britaine Tongue, written by one Clinnock at Rome, and printed at Millain, and lately spread secretly abroad in Wales,’ 12mo, London, 1571 (Tanner, Bibl. Brit. 1748, p. 270). He likewise revised and made considerable additions to a new edition of John Withals's dictionary, entitled ‘A Shorte Dictionarie most profitable for yong Beginners, the seconde tyme corrected, and augmented with diuerse Phrasys, & other thinges necessarie therevnto added. By Lewys Euans,’ 4to, London, 1574. In inscribing his work to the Earl of Leicester, Evans hints at poverty and want of suitable employment. The ‘Dictionarie’ went through several editions, that issued in 1586 being augmented ‘with more than six hundred rythmicall verses’ by Abraham Fleming [q. v.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Evans, Richard

​EVANS, RICHARD (1784–1871), portrait-painter and copyist, was for some years pupil and assistant to Sir Thomas Lawrence, for whom he painted drapery and backgrounds and made replicas of his works. He also made copies after Nash and other artists. He resided for many years in Rome, copying pictures by the old masters and painting portraits. He also tried his hand at fresco-painting, and on quitting Rome gave one of his attempts in that line to the servant who swept out his studio. Years afterwards he was surprised to find this hanging in South Kensington Museum as a genuine antique fresco from a tomb in the neighbourhood of Rome. In 1814 he visited the Louvre in Paris, and was one of the first Englishmen to copy the pictures then collected there. He exhibited for the first time at the Royal Academy in 1816, sending a portrait of Mr. Sadler, the aeronaut, and was a frequent exhibitor up to 1859, principally of portraits. He continued to paint up to the end of his life, and executed a large picture of ‘The Death of Æsculapius’ when over 85 years of age. He died at Southampton, where he had resided for more than a quarter of a century, in November 1871, aged 87. Evans had great powers of memory, and had many anecdotes of Lawrence and other famous artists. His extensive knowledge of art was of great use to the founders of the Original School of Design at Somerset House in 1837. During his residence at Rome he made a collection of casts from antique statuary, some of which he presented to the Hartley Institute, Southampton. The copies of the Raphael arabesques which are in the South Kensington Museum are by Evans. In the National Portrait Gallery there are by him portraits of Sir Thomas Lawrence (from a picture by himself), Lord Thurlow (from a picture by Lawrence), and Thomas Taylor, the Platonist.
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Evans, Robert Wilson

​EVANS, ROBERT WILSON (1789–1866), archdeacon of Westmoreland and author, second son of John Evans, M.D., of Llwynygroes, near Oswestry, by his wife, Jane Wilson. He was born at the Council House, Shrewsbury, 30 Aug. 1789, and was educated under Dr. Butler at Shrewsbury School, whence he proceeded to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1807. There he became seventh wrangler, second chancellor's medallist, and B.A. 1811, M.A. 1814, and B.D. 1842. Having obtained a fellowship in 1813, he was elected classical tutor of his college in the following year, having for colleague George Peacock, afterwards dean of Ely. In 1836 his former master, Dr. Butler, then bishop of Lichfield, made him his examining chaplain, and collated him to the vicarage of Tarvin, Cheshire. Here he found parish work in abundance, the experience of which is given in his 'Bishopric of Souls.' In 1842 he accepted from his college the vicarage of Heversham, a place within a morning drive of the finest of the Westmoreland scenery. One of his first acts was to build a new vicarage house on the shoulders of Heversham Head, a spot from which he commanded a most extensive view. He was appointed archdeacon of Westmoreland in 1856, and after holding the archdeaconry to the great satisfaction of the clergy and laity of the district, resigned it in January 1865 on account of his advancing years. He died at Heversham vicarage 10 March 1866. He was the author of: 1. 'A Course of Sermons preached before the University of Cambridge,' 1830. 2. 'The Rectory of Valehead,' 1830; 12th edition 1842. 3. 'The Church of God, in a series of Sermons,' 1832. 4. 'A Sermon at the Consecration of the Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry,' 1836. 5. 'A Sermon at the Ordination held by the Bishop of Lichfield,' 1838. 6. 'Hymns for the Christian Workman,' 1840. 7. 'Tales of the Ancient British Church,' 1840; 3rd edition 1859. 8. 'An Appeal against the Union of the Dioceses of Bangor and St. Asaph,' 1842. 9. 'The Bishopric of Souls,' 1842; 5th edition 1877. 10. 'A Sermon,' 1842. 11. 'A Day in the Sanctuary, with a Treatise on Hymnology,' 1843. 12. 'Parochial Sermons,' 3 volumes, 1844–55. 13. 'Consideration on the Scriptural Practice of Church Collections,' 1847. 14. 'The Ministry of the Body,' 1847. 15. 'A Visitation Sermon,' 1849. 16. 'Parochial Sketches,' in verse, 1850. 17. 'A Treatise on Versification,' 1852. 18. 'An Exhortation to the Lord's Day,' 1853. 19. 'Charges delivered to the Clergy of Westmoreland,' 2 vols., 1856, 1857. 20. 'Self-Examination and Proof,' a sermon, 1856. 21. 'Daily Hymns,' 1860. 22. 'England under God,' 1862. 23. 'A Sermon on Death of the Prince Consort,' 1862. He also wrote five volumes in the series known as 'The Theological Library, namely, vols. vii. xii. and xvi., 'Scripture Biography,' 1834, and vols. xiv. and xv., 'Biography of the Early Church,' 1836.
G. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Edwards, Thomas (1729-1785)

​EDWARDS, THOMAS (1729–1785), divine, son of Thomas Edwards, born at Coventry in August 1729, was educated at the free grammar school there. In 1747 he entered ​Clare Hall, Cambridge, and proceeded B.A. 1750, M.A. 1754, and was subsequently fellow of Clare. He was ordained deacon 1751, and priest 1753, by Dr. F. Cornwallis, bishop of Lichfield and Coventry. In 1755 he published 'A New English Translation of the Psalms,' &c. (Monthly Review, xii. 485), and in 1758 a sermon preached at St. Michaels. In 1758 he became master of the free grammar school and rector of St. John the Baptist, Coventry. In this year he married Ann Barrott.
In 1759 Edwards published 'The Doctrine of Irresistible Grace proved to have no foundation in the Writings of the N. T.,' a book of some importance in the Calvinist and Arminian controversy, and in 1762 'Prolegomena in Libros Veteris Testamenti Poeticos' (ib. xx. 32-5), to which he added an attack upon Dr. Lowth's 'Metricæ Harianæ brevis Confutatio,' which led to a controversy of some length. In 1766 he proceeded D.D., and in 1770 was presented to Nuneaton in Warwickshire, where he passed the rest of his life, having severed his connection with Coventry in 1779. He lost his wife in 1784, and dying in June 1785 was buried at Foleshill. He was of a mild and benevolent temper, and fond of retirement. His chief friend was Dr. E. Law, bishop of Carlisle. His other works are:
* 'Epistola ad doctissimum R. Lowthium,' 1765.
* Two Dissertationes, 1767.
* 'Due Dissertationes,' 1768.
* 'The Indispensable Duty of Contending for the Faith,' 1773.
* 'Selecta quædam Theocriti Idyllia' (350 lines of Theocritus, 250 pages of notes, and 20 pages of addenda, &c.)
[Kippis's Biog. Brit. 1793, v. 559; Monthly Review, 1. c. et passim; Cantabrigienses Graduati, p. 128; R. Lowth's De Sucra Poesi Hebræorum, 3rd ed. pp. 473-6; Watt's Bibl. Brit. 1824, p. 331.]
N. D. F. P.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Edwards, William Camden

​EDWARDS, WILLIAM CAMDEN (1777–1855), engraver, was born in Monmouthshire in 1777. Early in the nineteenth century he went to Bungay in Suffolk to engrave portraits and illustrations for the Bible, 'Pilgrim's Progress,' and similar works published by Mr. Brightly of that place. He left Bungay after Brightly's death, but eventually returned and settled there until his death on 22 Aug, 1855. He was buried in the cemetery of Holy Trinity, Bungay. A complete series of his engravings and etchings was in the collection of Mr. Dawson Turner, Edwards was very industrious, and his productions were of the most varied description; the majority of his plates were portraits, in which he excelled. Among these were Sir Joshua Reynolds, Dr. Johnson, after Reynolds, Sir William Chambers, after Reynolds, Flaxman, after J. Jackson, Hogarth, after himself, Fuseli, after Sir Thomas Lawrence, James Hogg, after C. Fox, D. Sayers, after Opie, and many others. Among his other plates were 'Milton and his Daughters,' after Romney, a landscape after Salvator Rosa, and 'The Head of St. John the Baptist on a Charger,' from a picture in Mr. Dawson Turner's collection.
L. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Edwards, Thomas (1775?-1845)

​EDWARDS, THOMAS (1775?–1845), legal writer, born about 1775, studied at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he proceeded LL.B. in 1800 and LL.D. in 1805. He was also a fellow of Trinity Hall, and was admitted advocate at Doctors' Commons. Edwards was a magistrate for the county of Surrey, and took considerable interest in questions connected with the improvement of the people. He died at the Grove, Carshalton, on 29 Oct. 1845. Edwards wrote:
* 'Reports of Cases argued and determined in the High Court of Admiralty; commencing with the Judgments of Sir William Scott, Easter Term, 1808,' 1812; reprinted in America.
* 'A Letter to the Lord-lieutenant of the County of Surrey on the Misconduct of Licensing Magistrates and the consequent Degradation of the Magistracy,' 1825.
* 'Reasons for Refusing to Sign the Lay Address to the Archbishop of Canterbury,' 2nd edition, 1835 (concerning the ritual of the church).
[Cat. of Cambr. Grad.; Gent. Mag. December 1845, p. 662; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
F. W-t.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Edwards, Thomas (1779-1858)

​EDWARDS, THOMAS (Caerfallwch), (1779–1858), Welsh author, born in 1779 at Northop in Flintshire, was apprenticed at fourteen to a saddler named Birch, and in this family he cultivated his taste for Welsh literature. He married in 1801 or 1802, and by this means was enabled to improve his condition very materially. He removed to London and became a secretary to one Bell first of all, and afterwards to Nathaniel M. Rothschild. In 1838 he was selected with five others, in connection with the Abergavenny Eisteddfod, to improve the Welsh Orthography. Nothing, however, came from the united action of these men; but in 1845 Edwards published his 'Analysis of Welsh Orthography.' He was for many years a member of the 'Cymmrodorion' and delivered many of their lectures; that on 'Currency' was afterwards published. But his great work was his 'English and Welsh Dictionary,' published by Evans (Holywell), 1850, second edition 1864. Another edition was published in the United States of America. This is considered by some authorities the best dictionary in the language. He was a frequent contributor to the Welsh magazines of the day. He was married three times. He died at 10 Cloudesley Square, London, 4 June 1858, and was interred in Highgate cemetery.
[Foulkes's Geirlyfr Bywgraffiadol.]
R. J. J.
EDWARDS, WILLIAM (1719–1789), bridge-builder, youngest son of a farmer of the same name, was born in 1719 at
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Edwards, Thomas (1652-1721)

​EDWARDS, THOMAS (1652–1721), divine and orientalist, born at Llanllêchid, near Bangor, Carnarvonshire, in 1652, was educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, where he took the two degrees in arts. B.A. 1673, M.A. 1677 (Cantab. Graduati, 1787, p. 128). In the early part of his life he lived with Dr. Edmund Castell [q. v.], and in 1685 he was engaged by Dr. John Fell, dean of Christ Church and bishop of Oxford, to assist in the impression of the New Testament in Coptic, almost finished by Dr. Thomas Marshall. At the same time he became chaplain of Christ Church. He was presented to the rectory of Aldwinckle All Saints, Northamptonshire, in 1707, and died in 1721. He left a Coptic lexicon ready for the press, and published 1 . 'A Discourse against Extemporary Prayer,' 8vo, London, 1703. Edmund Calamy referred to this book in support of his charge of apostasy against Theophilus Dorrington [q. v.] (Defence of Moderate Nonconformity, 1703, pt. i. p. 257). Edwards retorted fiercely in 2. 'Diocesan Episcopacy proved from Holy Scripture; with a letter to Mr. Edmund Calamy in the room of a dedicatory epistle,' 8vo, London, 1705.
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Edwards, Thomas (fl.1595)

​EDWARDS, THOMAS (fl. 1595), poet, was the author of two long narrative poems, 'Cephalus and Procris' and 'Narcissus,' issued in a single volume by John Wolfe in 1595. The book is dedicated to 'Thomas Argall, Esquire,' and although Edwards's name does not appear on the title-page, it is appended to the prefatory matter and to the end of each poem. As early as 22 Oct. 1593 a book entytuled "Procris and Cephalus," divided into foure partes,' was entered in the Stationers' registers and licensed to Wolfe, A passage in Thomas Nashe's 'Have with you to Saffron Walden' (1596) referred to the poem, and was until recently misinterpreted to imply that Anthony Chute [q. v.] was its author. Mention is also made of a poem called 'Cephalus and Procris' in W[illiam] C[lerke]'s 'Polimanteia,' 1595. The work has only lately come to light. In 1867 a fragment was discovered in Sir Charles Isham's library at Lamport Hall, Nottingham; in 1878 a complete copy, and the only one known, was found in the Peterborough Cathedral Library. The latter was reprinted, with elaborate critical apparatus, by Mr. W. E. Buckley for the Roxburghe Club in 1882. 'Cephalus and Procris' is in heroic couplets, 'Narcissus' in seven-line stanzas; Ovid's stories are for the most part followed, but there is much originality in the general treatment, and real poetic feeling throughout, Each poem concludes with a lyrical envoy; that to 'Narcissus' refers in appreciative terms to Spenser, Daniel, Watson, and Marlowe under the names 'Collyn,' 'Rosamond,' 'Amintas,' and 'Leander.' 'Adon,' another of Edwards's heroes, is probably Shakespeare. The poet is doubtless identical with a Thomas Edwards who contributed to Adrianus Romanus's 'Parvum Theatrum Urbium,' Frankfort, 1595, fifty-five Latin hexameters on the cities of Italy (reprinted and translated in Robert Vilvain's 'Enchiridium Epigrammatum Latino-Anglicum,' London, 1654). Two short, poems signed 'Edwardes,' from Tanner MS. 306, f. 175, are printed as by the author of 'Cephalus and Procris' in Mr. Buckley's volume.
There is some reason to suppose that the poet was an Oxford man, but it is not possible ​to identify him with certainty. The name is a common one. One Thomas Edwards, of a Berkshire family, became fellow of All Souls' College, Oxford, in 1579, proceeded B.A. on 20 March 1682, B.C.L. on 19 Nov. 1584, and D.C.L. on 17 Dec. 1590. He was afterwards, according to Wood, chancellor to the Bishop of London, and gave a few books to the Bodleian Library and to Christ Church.
A second Thomas Edwards (probably of Queens' College, Cambridge, B.A. 1578-9, M.A. 1582) became rector of Langenhoe, Essex, on 1 Oct. 1618; a third, the author of 'Gangræna' is noticed below; a fourth was buried in Westminster Abbey on 21 April 1624; a fifth had a son of the same name, who entered the Inner Temple in 1647; a sixth, a schoolmaster, is the subject of a poem in the Tanner MSS.
S. L. L.