He was the third child, second son of Arthur Benoni EVANS and Anne DICKINSON

Born 17th November 1823

Died 31st May 1908

He married three times as follows -

Firstly, he married on 12 Sept. 1850, his first cousin Harriet Ann DICKINSON.

She died leaving five children, 1 Jan 1858 and was buried at Abbot’s Langley, Herts.

John and Harriet’s children were:

1) Arthur John EVANS, 8 July 1851 – 12 July 1941

2) Lewis EVANS, 15 Feb 1853 – 25 Sept 1930

3) Philip Norman EVANS, 13 Dec. 1854 – 9 Dec. 1893

4) Alice EVANS, 9 July 1856 – 13 March 1887

5) Harriet Ann EVANS, 19 Dec 1857 – 20 April 1938

Secondly, he married on 23 July 1859, his first cousin Frances PHELPS who died 22 Sept. 1890 and was buried at Abbot’s Langley, Herts. Although she did not bear children herself, she was by all accounts a marvellous stepmother.

Thirdly, he married on 9 July 1892 Maria Millington LATHBURY (4 Dec. 1856 – 4 June 1944) of Wimbledon. They had one daughter - Joan EVANS, 22 June 1893 – Sept. 1977, born some 42 years after her elder half-brother.

The following is taken from Collectors and Keepers of the British Collections:

Sir John Evans was a pioneering figure in the fields of prehistoric archaeology, numismatics and geology. He was also a successful businessman with an extraordinary variety of interests, holding high offices in many learned societies.

He was born at Britwell Court, Buckinghamshire, on 17 November 1823, son of the Revd. Arthur Benoni Evans, headmaster of Market Bosworth grammar school.

At the age of 17, he was apprenticed to his uncle John Dickinson's paper mill at Nash Mills, Hemel Hempstead, where he worked until retirement.

Evans was one of the small group of British scholars involved with the development of the field and profession of archaeology in Britain in the nineteenth century. Through the meticulous observation and recording of information gained from his comprehensive collection, he published the first comprehensive and systematic volumes on British prehistoric artefacts.

Evans was a highly respected numismatist. He was the first person to devise a systematic classification of British Iron Age coinage and set out a simplified classification of English Short Cross coinage in 1865. He was a member of the Royal Numismatic Society from 1849 to 1908, serving as president for over 25 years.

His interest in hydrology and geology led Evans to help to bridge the gap between the natural sciences and archaeology. In 1880 the Geological Society presented him with the Lyell Medal "in recognition of his distinguished services to geological science, especially in the department of Post-Tertiary Geology".

The John Evans collection comprises more than 12,000 objects ranging from Palaeolithic hand axes through Merovingian ornaments, and includes material from most parts of the world. A large proportion of this material is from Britain.

Objects from the John Evans collection are easy to recognize by their blue-bordered labels neatly inscribed with details of their collecting history.

Sir Arthur Evans, John Evans's son, eventually became Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum and donated much of his father's collection to the museum at his death. John Evans died on 31st May 1908 at Berkhamsted.

John Evans's many publications include:

The Coins of the Ancient Britons (1864).

The Ancient Stone Implements, Weapons and Ornaments of Great Britain (1872).

The Ancient Bronze Implements, Weapons and Ornaments of Great Britain and Ireland (1881).

The collections of Sir John Evans held at the Ashmolean contain a large and varied range of British objects together with an extensive archive.

The Archives Hub brings together descriptions of thousands of the UK’s archive collections. Representing over 350 institutions across the country, the Archives Hub is an effective way to discover unique and often little-known sources to support your research. New descriptions are added every week, often representing collections being made available for the first time.

Here's a link to the Personal Papers of Sir John Evans.

Visited April 2023...