EVANS, William (1788-1856), of Allestree Hall, Derbys.

Evans’s father, the Derby banker, had industrial interests in cotton, paper and red lead mills and in copper smelting, to all of which he succeeded.A. Temple Patterson, Radical Leicester, 148; Fitton and Wadsworth, Strutts and Arkwrights, 164; D. Lysons, Derbys. 123; Dyott Diary, ii. 56. The apparent collapse of the 4th Duke of Newcastle’s electoral interest at East Retford provided him with an opening there in 1818 and he appeared on 15 Jan. to reconnoitre. Samuel Crompton, who arrived soon afterwards, described Evans to Earl Fitzwilliam as ‘a man of respectable character and good fortune ... he professes himself to belong to no party, but I think he may be regarded as a ministerialist’.Wentworth Woodhouse mun. F49/40, 41, 49. They were elected unopposed.

Evans exceeded Crompton’s hopes. He voted against ministers on the Windsor establishment, 22 and 25 Feb. 1819; for a review of the criminal law, 2 Mar., and took three weeks’ leave on 19 Mar.; but voted with ministers on Wyndham Quin, 29 Mar., and against Tierney’s censure motion, 18 May; against them on public lotteries, 4 May and 9 June, and against them on the foreign enlistment bill, 3 June. On 18 June, in his only known speech before 1820, he entered his ‘solemn protest’ against the wool tax. He voted against the seizure of arms bill on 14 and 16 Dec. 1819. His liberal tendencies were subsequently confirmed.Gent. Mag. (1856), i. 526. Evans died 8 Apr. 1856.