A combination of unexceptionable political opinions and diligent public service enabled Evans, a moderate Liberal, to represent a constituency previously dominated by the Conservatives for two long spells on either side of the second Reform Act. The extensive business interests of his family had originated with his great-grandfather Thomas Evans (1723-1814), who founded Derby Bank, inherited lead mines at Bonsall, and married the daughter and heiress of William Evans (no known relation), gaining possession of watermills used to produce iron, which he converted to spin cotton in 1783. His eldest son, and grandfather of the subject, William Evans (d. 1796) married the daughter of the pioneering textile capitalist, Jebediah Strutt. Evans’s father, William (1788-1856), inherited the banking, lead, and cotton interests accrued by his forefathers, as well as Derby waterworks, purchased land in Derbyshire, including the Allestree estate in 1825, and became lord of the manors of Parwich, Brailsford, Alkmonton and Newton Grange.
After leaving Cambridge, Evans married the daughter of another uncle, Thomas John Gisborne, and was appointed as a magistrate for the county and borough. In 1853, his father unexpectedly resigned as MP for North Derbyshire, apparently so that Evans would succeed him unopposed.
In 1857 he offered for South Derbyshire, where Allestree was situated. Displaying a vagueness which irritated some electors, he favoured a moderate extension of the franchise, civil and religious liberty, and supported Palmerston, but was evasive on the ballot.
A general support of the Liberal party, he endorsed 1858 county franchise bill, and the county and borough franchise bills of 1864, having finally came out against the ballot in the previous session.
At the 1865 election, Evans based his appeal to electors on the record of Palmerston’s government, particularly Gladstone’s financial policy, and was again returned in first place alongside Colvile. Thereafter, he seems to have spoken more often in the chamber, especially on cattle disease, and twice questioned ministers as to why a report about the outbreak in Derbyshire, which had been severely afflicted, had not been made public.
Having topped the poll at three consecutive elections, in 1868 Evans suffered the indignity of finishing last, behind Colvile, and two Conservatives. He unsuccessfully contested by-elections in South Derbyshire and Stafford in 1869, but was compensated by a variety of elected and unelected local offices, serving as mayor of Derby in 1869, and high sheriff of the county three years later.
Deteriorating health prevented Evans from taking an active part in national political life thereafter, but he was the inaugural chairman of Derbyshire County Council from 1889 until his death three years later. One of the jubilee baronets created in 1887, Evans, who was childless, was succeeded by his brother-in-law, William Gisborne (1825-98), who had served as the Colonial Secretary of New Zealand, 1869-72.