EVANS, ALCWYN CARYNI (1828-1902), antiquary;
b. 14 May 1828, son of Evan Donard Evans (1796-1877), a schoolmaster who kept a private school in Wood Street and after 1831 at the old Quaker meeting house in Lammas Street, Carmarthen. He m. (1) Elizabeth Amelia Rees (d. 1847), widow of an innkeeper who kept the ‘Castle’ in Priory Street, Carmarthen, and daughter of John Morgan; and (2) Mary (d. 1884), daughter of William Thomas, a Llandovery ropemaker. Like his father he was a schoolmaster, and for about forty years he kept a grammar school, ‘The Carmarthen Academy,’ in Lammas Street (after his father's day, in the old Quaker meeting house). He was an industrious antiquary who collected the genealogies of the ancient families of South Wales, frequently supplementing them and bringing them down to his own period. He also collected a wealth of material for the history of the town and shire of Carmarthen. A large collection of his works, stout volumes written in a beautiful hand and well indexed, is preserved in the National Library of Wales (N.L.W. MSS. 12356-88). His essay on the history of Carmarthen won the prize at the national eisteddfod in 1867. In 1878 he edited and annotated J. R. Daniel-Tyssen's Royal Charters … of the Town and County of Carmarthen. Alcwyn Evans was a Unitarian and a Liberal Unionist. He was a member of the Cambrian Archaeological Association and of the Carmarthen Literary and Scientific Institution. For years he prepared the rate books for the town of Carmarthen. He d. 11 March 1902. [His collections on the ‘Rebecca riots’ were utilized by H. Tobit Evans (q.v.) in his book on that subject.]
Bibliography:
- Carm. Jnl., 14 March 1902;
- S. W. Daily News, 12 March 1902;
- N.L.W. MS. 12359.
Author:
Dr Bertie George Charles, Ph.D., (1908-2000), Aberystwyth
