EVANS, JOHN (1796-1861), schoolmaster;
b. 7 Feb. 1796 at Blaen-plwyf, parish of Llanychaiarn, Cards. His father was a weaver, and he himself followed the same occupation until, becoming weary of it, he walked to London at the age of 17 in quest of more congenial work. There he supported himself by selling books from door to door. He was befriended by David Davies, a fellow-countryman and a musical instrument tuner, who helped to send Evans to a school conducted by Griffith Davies (q.v.), the famous actuary. There he made rapid progress in mathematics. After keeping school at Llanfair Caereinion and Llanidloes, he returned to Aberystwyth about 1821 (or earlier, for his tombstone states that he was a schoolmaster for forty-four years) to open his famous school, ‘The Mathematical and Commercial School,’ in Chalybeate Street, where the youth of the neighbourhood received a practical education for over forty years. The school had a good name for the teaching of navigation. Evans was also skilled in astronomy and in the construction of sundials and mechanical instruments. He m., in S. Michael's Church, Aberystwyth, Gwen Mason (1796-1834), of the parish of Llanbadarn-fawr, on 14 May 1821. In 1858 the townsmen of Aberystwyth presented him with a testimonial for maintaining a clock for the use of the town. Evans was an elder in Tabernacle Calvinistic Methodist church, Aberystwyth, for fourteen years. He d. 2 April 1861.
Bibliography:
- Enw. F., 339;
- Cymru (O.M.E.), Jan. 1892;
- Dan Williams, Memoirs of Co. Cardigan, 1874;
- Aberystwyth Obs., 22 Dec. 1858, 6 April 1861;
- Y Goleuad, 11 Sept. 1875;
- Reports of the Commissioners … Education in Wales, 1847, ii, 157.
Author:
Dr Bertie George Charles, Ph.D., (1908-2000), Aberystwyth
