Thomas Evans

Thomas Evans was born on 5 Apr 1826 and was baptized four days later in St Peter’s Collegiate Church Wolverhampton. He was the second son of Richard Evans and Mary Shaw-Hellier.

He married Sarah Amelia Agard, a governness from Manchester on 14 Jun 1855. The 1851 census shows she was working for the Thompson family at Barnhurst. However after the marriage Thomas started by renting the same property and commenced farming. They had six children, all of whom were born at Barnhurst. Commercially Thomas appears to have been inept and he was not able to make a living.

Thomas Evans (probably)

By about 1875 the marriage was under strain and at some point in the late 1870’s Thomas fled for Australia – perhaps to find his brother Charles. The censuses indicate a marked decline in financial prosperity from 1861 to 1871. His wife Sarah descended into what was described as a ‘religious melancholy’. The failure of Thomas to “do his duty” was a cause of considerable torment within the Evans family and particularly to Thomas’s ageing mother Mary, who died in 1878.

We know that Henry and Sarah strongly dispproved of Thomas’s behaviour but certainly some of the other brothers notably William were more sympathetic. William indeed was sending money out to Australia after 1900 and tried to track him down as late as 1910, by which time we can assume he was dead.

The reprobation shown to Thomas was certainly not matched by any support for the beleaguered Sarah. By the 1891 census she is recorded as a ‘lunatic’ in an institution in Warrington. It can only be speculated as to whether this condition was the cause or effect of the domestic break up.

Thomas’s abandoned family undoubtedly struggled without their father but this perhaps was particularly character forming for some of them. The family moved north to Cheshire where Sarah had been born and appear to have eked out a living by needlework and tailoring. However the solidarity of the family in this adversity meant that each of the children were able to forge independent business careers, most notably Ernest who founded a travel business in Switzerland.

The further fortunes of the Agard Evans are well recorded by the direct descendants.

Family of Thomas EVANS and Sarah Amelia AGARD

Husband: Thomas EVANS

Wife: Sarah Amelia AGARD

Child 1: Ernest Agard EVANS

Child 2: Herbert EVANS

Child 3: Thomas Henry Agard EVANS

Child 4: Fanny Agard EVANS

Child 5: Jessie Agard EVANS

Child 6: Charles Arthur Agard EVANS