Evan Evans

Evan Evans (20 May 1731 – 4 August 1788) (bardic name , also known as ) was a Welsh-language poet, clergyman, antiquary and literary critic.

Evans, son of Jenkin Evans, was born at Cynhawdref, in the parish of Lledrod, Cardiganshire. He received his education at the grammar school of Ystrad Meurig, under the scholar and poet Edward Richard. He moved to Oxford, and entered Merton College in 1751 but left without graduating. He had conveyed a small freehold in Cardiganshire to his younger brother for £100, in order to support himself at the university.

By 1754 he had been ordained as a priest, and he served as curate in at least eighteen different parishes, He died at Cynhawdref, the place of his birth, on 4 August 1788, and was buried in Lledrod churchyard. The suddenness of his death gave rise to entirely false reports that he had committed suicide, or died of starvation on a mountain.

The Rev. Daniel Silvan Evans, B.D., published a collection of Evan Evans's miscellaneous writing under the title of Gwaith y Parchedig Evan Evans (Ieuan Brydydd Hir) golygedig gan D. Silvan Evans, B.D., Caernarfon: argraffedig gan H. Humphreys, 1876. This volume contains numerous poems in Welsh, the English poem on The Love of our Country forty-six of Evans's letters, mostly in English, A Short View of the State of Britain, reprinted from the 'Cambrian Quarterly Magazine,’ vol. i., and an English translation of Evans's Latin introduction to his intended publication of the Welsh Proverbs.