Thomas Evans

Thomas Evans (1742–1784) was a London bookseller, one of two of the same name in the middle of the 18th century.

Life Evans served an apprenticeship with Charles Marsh of Round Court and Charing Cross, and opened a bookshop in the Strand, London. He published works on English literature and antiquities, many edited by himself.

A leading member of the booksellers' club in the Grecian Coffee-house, to which Thomas Davies belonged, Evans was popular. Unlike his namesake Thomas Evans (1739–1803), he was on good terms with Oliver Goldsmith, and collected the first London edition of his writings. Desiderata Curiosa, by Francis Peck, new edition, London, 1779, 2 vols. Evans submitted in it a proposal to reprint Thomas Tanner's Notitia Monastica, some years later published by James Nasmith in a new edition. Poetical Works of Matthew Prior, London, 1779, 2 vols. Poetical and Dramatic Works of O. Goldsmith, London, 1780, 2 vols. Old Ballads, Historical and Narrative, with some of Modern Date, now first collected and reprinted from Rare Copies and MSS., with Notes by T. Evans, London, 1784, 2 vols. First edition, 1777, 2 vols.; third edition, edited by R. H. Evans, his son, 1810, 4 vols. This was his major work. The Works of Francis Rabelais, translated, London, 1784, 4 vols.

Family Evans left a widow Ann and a young son, Robert Harding Evans.