The Hundred of Evan was a former lands administrative division located on the western edge of Greater

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, corresponding approximately to the modern City of Penrith. It was one of the thirteen hundreds in the County of Cumberland, which were published in the government gazette of May 27, 1835, and repealed on January 21, 1888. Upon its creation as a Hundred in 1835, Evan was divided into three parishes, being (from east to west) Melville, Claremont, and Mulgoa.

Evan District

The area had been settled for several decades, and was originally known as the District of Evan, and was founded on the eastern side of the Nepean River. It was named in honour of

Sir Evan Nepean Sir Evan Nepean, 1st Baronet, PC FRS (9 July 1752 – 2 October 1822)Sparrow (n.d.) was a British politician and colonial administrator. He was the first of the Nepean Baronets. Family Nepean was born at St. Stephens near Saltash, Cornwall ...

. The earliest known newspaper reference to the Evan District dates to 1803,"General Orders", in ''The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser'', Sun 24 Jul 1803
Page 1
when the first grants of land were issued there. Evan District's first town, Castlereagh, was one of the five Macquarie Towns, planned by Governor

Macquarie Macquarie may refer to: People * Lachlan Macquarie, Governor of the British colony of New South Wales from 1810 to 1821. * Elizabeth Macquarie Campbell, Lachlan Macquarie's second wife Locations * Division of Macquarie, an electoral district in th ...

in 1810. However, over time, Castlereagh became overshadowed by the area's other significant town, Penrith, which grew up at the crossing-point of the road over the Nepean River, leading to the way over the Blue Mountains. The gradual disappearance of the district's name, Evan, was helped by its often being displaced by the more popularly used name of the nearby river, the Nepean.

References

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External links

The Parish Map
Board of Surveying and Spatial Information of New South Wales
A map of the County of Cumberland in the Colony of New South Wales
1840. National Library of Australia MAP F 263.
A map of the County of Cumberland in the colony of New South Wales
1848. National Library of Australia MAP F 104 History of Sydney Hundreds of Cumberland County (New South Wales)