DAVID EVANS was the son of David Evans, who emigrated from Wales to Philadelphia in 1701, and appears to have joined a settlement in what was called the Welsh Tract, or Pencader, in Delaware, just over the Pennsylvania border.
The Presbytery of Philadelphia being informed at their annual session, in September, 1710, that David Evans, Jr. (now perhaps 21 or 22 years old), “a lay person, had taken upon him publicly to teach or preach among the Welsh in the Great Valley, Chester County, it was unanimously agreed, that said Evans had done very ill, and acted irregularly in thus invading the work of the ministry, and he was thereupon censured.”
It was also “Agreed, that the most proper method for advancing David Evans, in necessary literature, to prepare him for the work of the ministry is that he lay aside all other business for a twelve month, and apply himself to learning and study,” under the direction of the Rev. Jedidiah Andrews (Harv. 1695), of Philadelphia. Again, a year later, the Presbytery approved of his proficiency, and licensed him to preach for one year. In September, 1712, the people of the two adjoining congregations of the Welsh Tract and the Tredyffrin, or Great Valley, petitioned for his ordination as their pastor; but though the Presbytery ascertained by an examining committee “that he had, for the time, made considerable proficiency,” they did not yet accede to the request, but recommended further study.
Accordingly he went to Saybrook, probably through the advice of the Rev. Joseph Morgan (hon. Y. C. 1702), of Freehold, and graduated a year later. He now began to preach to the people of the Welsh Tract, with the approval of Presbytery, and at the meeting of that body, September 8, 1714, accepted a unanimous call from this congregation, and was accordingly ordained November 3. The Great Valley Church remained without a regular pastor. In 1720 a difference arose between Mr. Evans and one of his people, which resulted in the dissolution of the pastoral relation; whereupon he was called, the same year, to the Great Valley congregation, and a church erected for him. His salary was £25 a year.
In the latter part of 1740 he was dismissed from his charge, the majority of the congregation sympathizing with the “New Side” branch of the denomination, while he was with the “Old Side.” The charges brought against him by his opponents were heterodoxy, not preaching enough in the Welsh language, and church tyranny.
He next assisted in organizing and became pastor (April 30, 1741) of a church in Pilesgrove, Cumberland County, New Jersey, where he continued until his death, early in 1751. His will (dated July 25, 1749, proved March 9, 1750–51) mentions wife Ann. Two of his sons graduated here in 1739 and 1740.
He was somewhat eccentric and high-spirited, and probably excitable and vacillating. He published:
1. The Minister of Christ and his Flock. A Sermon [from 1 Thess. v., 12, 13] preached at the Ordination of Richard Treat [Y. C. 1725] at Abingdon, December 30, 1731. Philad., 1732. Printed by B. Franklin. 16°, pp. 108. [Y. C., imperfect.
2. Law and Gospel; or, Man wholly ruined by the Law, and Recovered by the Gospel. Being the substance of some Sermons preached at Tredyffryn, in 1734, and again at Piles-Grove, in 1745. Philadelphia: Printed by B. Franklin & D. Hall. 1748. 16°, pp. 52. [Y. C.
He is said also to have published a volume entitled, Help for Parents, at Philadelphia (Franklin Press), in 1732.
