John Evans (archaeologist)

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For other persons named John Evans, see John Evans (disambiguation).

Sir John Evans (17 November 1823 – 31 May 1908) was an English archaeologist and geologist.

John Evans was the son of the Rev. Dr A. B. Evans, headmaster of Market Bosworth Grammar School, and was born at Britwell Court, Buckinghamshire. He was for many years head of the extensive paper manufactory of Messrs John Dickinson at Nash Mills, Hemel Hempstead, but was especially distinguished as an antiquary and numismatist, that is, a collector of ancient objects and coins.

He was the author of three books, standard in their respective departments: The Coins of the Ancient Britons (1864); The Ancient Stone Implements, Weapons and Ornaments of Great Britain (1872); and The Ancient Bronze Implements, Weapons and Ornaments of Great Britain and Ireland (1881). He also wrote a number of separate papers on archaeological and geological subjects notably the papers on Flint Implements in the Drift communicated in 1860 and 1862 to Archaeologia, the organ of the Society of Antiquaries. Of that society he was president from 1885 to 1892, and he was President of the Numismatic Society from 1874 to the time of his death. He also presided over the Geological Society, 1874–1876; the Anthropological Institute, 1877–1879; the Society of Chemical Industry, 1891–1893; and the British Association, 1897–1898. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1864 and for twenty years (1878–1898) he was treasurer of the Society.

As President of the Society of Antiquaries he was an ex officio trustee of the British Museum, and subsequently he became a permanent trustee. His academic honors included honorary degrees from several universities, and he was a corresponding member of the Institut de France. He was created a KCB in 1892.

Evans was married three times, widowed twice, and had six children. He married Harriet Ann Dickinson, daughter of John Dickinson and they had five children.

  • Arthur John Evans (1851-1941)
  • Lewis Evans (1853-1930)
  • Philip Norman Evans (1854-1893)
  • Alice Evans (1856-1882)
  • Harriet Ann Evans (1857-1938)

Harriet died in 1858, and he married Frances Phelps, who died in 1890. He then married Maria Millington Lathbury and they had a daughter Joan Evans.

His eldest son was Sir Arthur Evans, curator of the Ashmolean Museum and excavator of Minoan Crete. His younger son, Lewis Evans continued with the family business and collected scientific instruments that formed the core of the collection for the Museum of the History of Science, Oxford. Joan Evans became a historian of French and English medieval art.

He died at Berkhamsted in 1908.

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