Person:William Evans (146)

William Evans' origins have yet to be established. His first confirmed sighting is on 8th June 1817 when he married Mary Cassanet at Hackney in Middlesex, a couple of miles north-east of the City of London. They went on to have five children between 1819 and 1829. All five children's baptisms describe William as being a carpenter. In 1819 and 1821 they were living on Mare Street in Hackney. By 1823 they were said to be living in the parish of St Bartholomew the Great in the City of London, although were still having their children baptised in Hackney. By 1825 they had moved to the parish of St Giles Cripplegate in London.

Their daughter Mary Ann died when only fifteen months old, being buried at St Giles Cripplegate in 1826. The family at that time was living at New Union Street. They were still at New Union Street in 1829 when their youngest child (and only son) was born. He too died as a baby, when he was only seven months old.

William has not been traced after the baptism of his youngest son in 1829. It seems that his wife Mary later described herself as the wife of a man called William Nancarrow - whilst no marriage for them has been found they seem to have been together from 1837 onwards, with William Nancarrow witnessing the marriages of two of the Evans daughters in 1837 and 1846 and the address given by the other daughter when she married in 1840 being the address at which William Nancarrow and Mary were living in the 1841 census.

It is quite likely therefore that William Evans died some time between 1829 and 1837, although the name William Evans was a very common one and several plausible burials have been identified. The most likely would appear to be a William Evans who was buried at Shoreditch on 15th July 1832, aged 40, who had lived at New Inn Yard, which was about half a mile north-east of New Union Street where the family had been living in 1830.

1.   London, England. Church of England Deaths and Burials, 1813-2003 (London Metropolitan Archives / ancestry.co.uk).

   Several plausible burials of a William Evans old enough to have married in 1817 from the City or its north-eastern suburbs, any or none of which may be this man:
   bur. 15 Jul 1832, St Leonard, Shoreditch: William Evans / New Inn Yard / 40 [1791/2]
   bur. 7 Apr 1837, St Leonard, Shoreditch: William Evans / Deans Court / 64 [1772/3]
   bur. 3 Jan 1839, St John, Hoxton: William Evans / Shepherdess Walk / 53 [1785/6]
   bur. 15 Jan 1840, St Botolph without Aldgate: William Evans / 127 Aldersgate Street / 83 [1756/7]
   bur. 5 Apr 1840, St John, Hoxton: William Evans / Dorchester Street / 60 [1779/80]
   bur. 19 May 1840, St Leonard, Shoreditch: William Evans / Cross Street / 60 [1779/80]
   bur. 19 Mar 1841, St James, Clerkenwell: William Evans / St John Street / 40 [1800/1]