Evans, Benjamin, Dd

Evans, Benjamin, D.D.

an English Baptist minister, was born at Bilston, Staffordshire, May 13, 1803. As a boy his thirst for knowledge was intense, and he excelled in drawings on Staffordshire pottery-ware. He was converted in his youth, joined the Baptists, and at twenty entered Horton College, Bradford, Yorkshire. In 1825 he accepted an invitation as pastor over a very small Church at the seaport of Scarborough, where, for forty years, he preached four sermons, held five prayer-meetings, and conducted three Bible-classes weekly. He formed a new Baptist Ministerial Association, which sent out a young man from Horton College to represent the Baptist cause in Germany. He also founded the first Baptist church in Brussels. He effectually resisted the levying of Church rates in Scarborough on Independents; took a leading part in the anti-Corn-Law League, and in the anti-State-Church Associations, and was the founder and first secretary of the Mechanics' Institute in the town; the Archaeological Society and Museum owes much of its success to his efforts. He was the founder of the Society for the Education of Ministers' Sons, and its president; the founder of the Theological College at Bury, and professor of ecclesiastical history in it; and he also established and edited The Baptist Record, a quarterly journal. Among his published works are, The Enlarged History of Scarborough: — The History of Horton and Rawdon Colleges: — The History of the Early English Baptists (2 volumes): — Modern Popery: — Hints to Young Christians: — Life of Wickliffe: — History of the German Reformation: — Lectures on Ecclesiastical History: — The Religious State of Belgium, and about a score of pamphlets on popular topics. He was the father of the Freeman newspaper, and a contributor to half a dozen Baptist magazines. He died suddenly, April 6, 1871. See (Lond.) Baptist Handbook, 1872.