Evan Johns

Evan Johns (1763-1849), a Welshman, served as the Presbyterian minister to the congregation in Churchgate Street, Bury St Edmunds, after the death of William Lincolne in 1792. By 1800 his orthodoxy had led to tensions as many members of the congregation moved toward Arian and Socinian opinions, forcing Johns to resign that year. Some of the more orthodox members left with Johns and joined the Congregational church in Whiting Street, where Thomas Waldegrave ministered from 1771 to 1802 (Crabb Robinson’s uncle, Thomas Robinson, was a member at Whiting Street). Johns emigrated to America in 1802, settling first at Berlin, Connecticut, where he pastored the Congregational Church until 1811, at which time he preached in various locations before settling at Canandaigua, where he ministered to the Congregational Church from 1817 to 1823 (he remained there in retirement until his death in 1849).  As James Trumbull put it concerning his time at Berlin: ‘With much the greater intellect and much the greater eloquence and power in the pulpit, he had also a more irascible temper and quicker impulses, and lacked that mildness of demeanor and judiciousness of counsel and conduct which had given his predecessor so strong a hold on his people’. Some interesting accounts of Johns can be found in Crabb Robinson’s correspondence. In August 1799, a few months before his resignation, Johns wrote to Crabb, livid over a recent incident between himself and Hall. ‘I lately was in Northamptonshire,’ he writes, ‘among my old acquaintance.  I thought myself very fortunate in having determined to undertake the journey, because it gave me an opportunity to vindicate myself against the wanton attack of Hall of Cambridge.  He had given such a representation, at a very numerous meeting of Ministers at Bedford, of my want of hospitality towards him as that my friends said that, had I presented myself at their doors immediately afterwards they did not know that they should have asked me into their houses.  They understood that, I had given no Supper to Hall, Phillips, and Owen, but had gone to the Inn and been entertained at their Expence.  Having heard the real fact, you will not think me too forward in any censure when I say that, Hall is a malignant and a calumnious Liar’ (Evan Johns to Crabb Robinson, 28 August 1799, Crabb Robinson Correspondence, vol. 1, no. 127). In his old age, Crabb added a note to Johns’s letter: ‘Evan Johns was an Independent minister, a character so remarkable that I do not like to destroy the single memorial of him, tho’ no one may care to read it.  He was an old Jacobin and a fierce Calvinist’, adding that he went to America where he made himself ‘ridiculous’ by his insolent attitude toward the American ministers.  HCR, on his walking tour of Wales at that time, met with Hall and Phillips (the Independent minister at Haverford-West who was hosting Hall during his annual West Country vacation), having the letter by Johns with him. He recorded the meeting in a letter to his brother Thomas on 1 October 1799: ‘Passing thro’ Haverford West I was looking into a window and to my astonishment, saw – whom now can you guess – of all men living none other than Hall.  I delayed calling on Mr. Phillips till after breakfast when I was received by him with great attention & by Hall with marked respect indeed it was a kind of eagerness which Mr H. showed for my company that induced me to accept an invitation first to dinner then to tea & afterward to spend the evening with them at the house of a friend.  I scarcely need say on what subjects we chatted.  Among these, their visit to Johns.  You may inform Mr. Johns of what passed.  Mr. Phillips being there I thought it right to read Mr. Johns Postscript which I did, omitting the last sentence.  Hall in the most solemn manner declared that he never asserted that he did not sup at Mr. Johns and confessed that if he had said so it would have been a lye.  We then talked further about the unlucky visit and I find that Mr. Johns like the scapegoat has borne the sins of the place, for that Mr. H. resentment was principally occasioned by the rudeness of Mr. Leech at the club & the acquiescence of every one in Leech’s assertions...’ (Crabb Robinson Correspondence, vol. 1, no. 134). For a history of Johns in America, see James Hammond Trumbull, Hartford County, Connecticut, A Memorial History 1683-1884 (Boston: E. L. Osgood, 1886), vol. 2, p. 19.