Rectory Lane Cemetery, Berkhamsted

Frederick John Morgan Evans

13/09/1825 –07/12/1879

Born in Radnorshire, educated at Oxford, Chaplain to HMS Boscawen, married in Bermuda.

• Karen Evans

In memory of The Revd Frederick John Morgan Evans B.A.
Born Sep 18th 1825  Died Dec 7th 1879
“Behold I make all things new”

Frederick John Morgan Evans was born on 18th September 1825 and baptised in 1829 at Nantmel, Radnorshire, the son of Morgan John Evans, gentleman, and his wife Eliza Susannah (nee Bradstock). His parents had married on 24th April 1817, at the parish Church of Birlingham in Worcestershire, which was where his mother was born and raised.

Frederick’s siblings were:

• Frances Eliza, baptised on 12th September 1818 at Nantmel, Radnorshire. She remained a spinster all her life.
• Anne Harriet Margaretta, baptised 9th August 1819 at Nantmel, Radnorshire.
• Frederick Morgan, baptised 8th March 1821 and buried 24th June 1824 at Nantmel, Radnorshire.
• Edward Middleton, baptised 27th October 1822 at Kington, Herefordshire.
• Harriet Maria, baptised 13th April 1824 at Kington, Herefordshire.

The Evans family lived at Llwynbarried Hall, an estate which had been in the family since the late 1600’s. Their coat of arms was three black boars’ heads in a gold field and is displayed in Nantmel’s Church of St Cynllo.

Because of their Gentry status, many events in the life of the Evans family were recorded in the local press. Reports in the Hereford Journal follow:

• 18th February 1818 – BIRTH – On Sunday the 15th instant, of a daughter at Kington, the lady of Morgan John Evans Esq. of Llwynbarried, in the County of Radnor
• 12th May 1819 – BIRTH – On the 4th instant, at Llwynbarried House, in the County of Radnor, the Lady of M. J. Evans Esq. of a daughter.
• 14th March 1821-BIRTH – At Llwynbarried, in the County of Radnor, the lady of Morgan John Evans Esq. of a son.
• 23rdJune 1824 – DEATH – June 20, aged three years, Frederick Morgan, eldest son of John Morgan Evans, Esq. of Llwynbarried, in the County of Radnor.

Llwynbarried Hall, where Frederick was raised, is a large Country house, based on a west range, that was built circa 1600 with a service range (‘cottage’) dated 1773, situated on a ridge across the Dulas River valley from Nantmel church.

In November 1818 Morgan John Evans of Llwynbarried House was appointed as one of the High Sheriffs of Radnorshire. Frederick’s father’s status in the community appears to have made him very strict at enforcing the law. The Worcester Journal of 4th September 1828 has the following notice:

GAME
THIS IS TO GIVE NOTICE, that whoever will be found Sporting or Trespassing on LLWYNBARRIED DEMENSE, in the Parish of Nantmel, in the County of Radnor, after this Date, will be proceeded against according to Law; and any Person giving information of such Trespasser or Trespassers, so that such Person or Persons shall be brought to Conviction, shall be handsomely rewarded for his trouble.
MORGAN JOHN EVANS
Llwyanbarried Aug. 26, 1828.

Morgan John Evans of Llwynbarried died on Monday 12th January 1829, at Brecon and was buried at Nantmel on 17th January 1829, aged a mere 36 years old. Morgan John’s will dated 5th September 1828, shows that the family were very wealthy. His will made provision for his four youngest children by appointing two trustees who were to “divide the said principal sum of eight thousand pounds to and amongst my four younger children in equal shares and proportions … so that the share of my younger Son be vested in and paid to him upon his attaining the age of twenty-one years.”

Frederick’s inheritance, in today’s money would be approximately £154,000.

In 1841 Frederick’s mother and eldest sister, Frances, were living at The Court House, Painswick in Gloucestershire. Eliza Susanna, widow of Morgan John Evans, Esq., of Llwynbarried, died at Cheltenham on 21st March 1847, aged 56. Her daughter appears in subsequent censuses, as a spinster staying with wealthy friends throughout Gloucestershire.

The family’s wealth meant that the Evans brothers were able to receive the best education of the day. On 2nd May 1845 the heir to the Llwynbarried Estate, Edward Middleton Evans, received his Batchelor of Arts Degree from University College Oxford, whilst the younger Frederick John Morgan Evans of St Peter’s College Cambridge had his Bachelors of Arts degree conferred upon him on 21st November 1849.

Two weeks later Frederick John had returned back home to Wales, where he appears as a witness on the marriage certificate of his elder brother. Edward Middleton Evans married Mary Anne Wilhuis Lucas at St Mary’s Chapel in the Parish of St John the Evangelist, Brecon. Having inherited his father’s estate at Llwynbarried, Edward had followed in his father’s footsteps and been made High Sheriff for Radnorshire in 1849. The marriage was announced in the London Evening Standard on Friday 7th December 1849 as follows:
On the 4th inst., at Brecon, Edward Middleton Evans, Esq of Llwynbarried, High Sheriff of the County of Radnor, to Mary, fifth daughter of the late Henry Lucas, Esq., M.D., of Brecon.

Frederick John Morgan Evans, B.A., St Peter’s College, Cambridge was ordained as a Priest on Sunday 23rd November 1851 by the Right Rev. The Lord Bishop of Worcester at Hartlepool Church. Ordination meant that Frederick was now able to practice as a member of the clergy. In December 1853 Rev. Frederick J.M. Evans was appointed as Chaplain to Boscawen, 70, fitted at Chatham for service as flag ship of Rear-Admiral Arthur Fanshawe, C.B., on the North America and West India Station (from Portsmouth Times and Naval Gazette dated 24th December 1853). The following is an extract from The Journal of H.M.S Boscawen:
On reaching Portsmouth the Boscawen was refitted with all expedition and sailed again for Halifax, Nova Scotia., which port she reached in September 1854 and having hoisted Vice-Admiral Arthur Fanshaw’s flag at the fore, embarked himself and suite, as also his carriages, horses, cows, sheep and garden roots, for conveyance to the Admiralty house and grounds at the island of Bermuda, where all the stock would remain whilst the Admiral proceeded in the flag-ship to the West Indies for his annual inspection of that part of the station. On his return to Bermuda in two- or three-months’ time, he would settle down at the beautiful residence provided for him, and within signal distance of his flag-ship and squadron anchored off the dockyard at Ireland Island. About the 1st of June, when the summer had fairly set in at Halifax. The Farm,” as it was jocosely called, would be again taken on board, and sail made for the land of blue noses, a potato peculiar to Nova Scotia. Here the Admiral would occupy the fine mansion allowed him by the Government, contiguous to the dockyard, until the time came round again for his departure to the South, and this brings us to the months of October or November. Cold winds commence to blow during the former period, and then a reaction in the temperature takes place when that curious phenomenon the ” Indian Summer ” sets in.
Towards the end of October, then, in 1854, as has been previously stated, the Boscawen left Halifax for Bermuda. Many were the wavings of handkerchiefs from fair young forms as they rose to their windows, at early dawn, to signal their last greetings to those more or less implanted in their affections, and to gaze at the stately ship as, with crowded sail and favouring breeze, she passed out into the broad Atlantic.

HMS Boscawan was a 70-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 3 April 1844 at Woolwich Dockyard. She was named for Admiral Edward Boscawen.

It is almost certain that Frederick met his wife, Catherine whilst serving on H.M.S Boscawen. His wife Catherine Stow Boyd, was born in Bermuda, where they married sometime in 1855. Their first child, Kate Fanshaw Evans was born in Bermuda in 1857. She was followed in 1860 by twins Susan Perot and Fanny Bradstock, whilst Frederick’s eldest son, Rowland was born in Baltimore, in the United States of America in 1862.

The responsibility of having a wife and daughter meant that Frederick resigned from his navy Chaplaincy in January 1857.

The next time that Frederick appears in Great Britain is on 21st August 1869 when he arrived at The Belle Vue Hotel, Cheltenham. The comings and goings in Cheltenham were reported upon by The Cheltenham Looker-On  – a social and literary weekly periodical published in Cheltenham between 1833 and 1920.

At the time of the 1871 census Frederick J M Evans was living in Berkhamsted High Street, with his wife Kate, daughter Fanny and son, Rowland. The family were also able to employ two domestic servants. Frederick’s occupation was given as “Church of England, without care of Souls”. There is nothing to indicate why Frederick and Kate settled in Berkhamsted, after travelling back across the Atlantic to the UK. There is no doubt that Frederick was in contact with his brother Edward, who was living on the family estate of Llwynbarried, as Frederick’s daughter, Susan, was living with her Uncle at the time of the 1871 census. All that can be ascertained is that they lived in the town for at least eight years.

On 28th July 1872 Frederick and Kate baptised their second son, Charles Hanmer Myddleton Evans at St Peter’s Church, Berkhamsted. He was their only child born in the British Isles.

The Reverend Frederick John Morgan Evans’ death was reported on 16th December 1879 in the Leighton Buzzard Observer as:
EVANS – On the 7th inst. At Great Berkhamsted, Herts., the Rev Fred. John Morgan Evans aged 54.

The Reverend Frederick John Morgan Evans died on 7th December 1879 and his will was proved by his widow, Catherine Stowe Evans.

Within 18 months of Frederick’s death, his widow had moved the family to Radnor House, St Andrews Road, Southsea. The fact that the house was named after the Shire that Frederick was born and raised in, can be no coincidence. Living with them was Kate’s widowed sister, Angelina Boyd, and a nephew Edmund J Lough, both of whom had been born in Bermuda.

On 1st June 1892 at St Peter’s, Southsea, Kate Fanshaw Evans, eldest daughter of the late Rev. Frederick J.M. Evans, B.A. of Radnor House, Southsea married C. Herbert Collis, eldest son of Charles William Collis, Esq of Hagley, Worcestershire. The couple were married by the Rev E J Lough, cousin of the bride.

Frederick’s widow, Catherine Stowe Evans, died on 29th November 1924 at Holmwood, Shipton-under-Wychwood, Oxfordshire. Administration of her estate was given to her two unmarried daughters Susan and Fanny.

Frederick and Kate appear to have never had any grandchildren, as their only married daughter, Kate, never had any children.