EVANS
,
WILLIAM
(d.
1718
),
Dissenting minister and academy tutor
.
The date of his birth is unknown, but he called himself a disciple
of the ‘revered Gamaliel’
Rhys
Prydderch
of
Ystrad Wallter
(q.v.)
, whose
Gemau Doethineb
he seems to have brought through the press in
1714
(there were several editions, one as late as
1937
). He was ordained as an
Independent
in
1688
, for pastoral work at
Pencader
, where the money sustenance was thin indeed, but helped out by his wife's income and the pupils of a
small school which he kept
there. In
1702-3
he moved from
Pencader
to
Carmarthen
to
superintend the Independent causes
in that neighbourhood, to
keep a school
under the auspices of the
S.P.C.K.
, and to act as
tutor to young men preparing for the ministry
; he kept up very close relations with his old flock at
Pencader
, and managed to secure for
Independent
worship the sometime
Anglican chapel-of-ease
at
Llan-y-bri
. He
trained several doughty Calvinists
at his
Carmarthen Academy
(which was in indirect succession to those at
Brynllywarch
and
Aber-gavenny
), and saw to it that both the students thereat and his Independent congregations at
Carmarthen
and
Pencader
were thoroughly conversant with the
Shorter Catechism of the Westminster Assembly
; in fact, the catechism was translated into
Welsh
by
William
Evans
himself, and published in
1707
; there is evidence too, that he wrote a foreword (dated
24 June 1716
) to another edition of the same catechism, originally published by
Matthew
Henry
in
1702
, and now translated by
James
Davies
(
Iaco ap Dewi
,
1648
-
1722
, q.v.)
.
Jeremy
Owen
(q.v.)
calls
William
Evans
‘God's gift to his people.’
He d. probably
towards the end of 1718
.
Bibliography:
-
Manuscript (the property of the Presbyterian Board)
published by Alexander Gordon under the title ,
1917
, 144, 260;
-
A History of Carmarthenshire
, 2 vols.,
1935–9
, ii, 158-62;
-
Cambrian Bibliography
, Llanidloes, 1869
, 281, 300, 314.
Author:
Thomas Richards, D.Litt., (1878-1962), Bangor
