Arthur Wade Wade-Evans (born Arthur Wade Evans) (31 August 1875 – 4 January 1964) was a

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peopl ...

clergyman and historian.

Biography

Evans was born in Fishguard, Pembrokeshire, in south Wales on 31 August 1875 and did not include his mother's maiden name in his surname until 1899, when he was 24 years old. His father, Titus Evans, was a master mariner. Evans was educated at Haverfordwest Grammar school. In 1893, he matriculated at

Jesus College, Oxford Jesus College (in full: Jesus College in the University of Oxford of Queen Elizabeth's Foundation) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It is in the centre of the city, on a site between Turl Street, Ship S ...

, graduating in 1896. He was ordained deacon in

St Paul's Cathedral St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglicanism, Anglican cathedral in London and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London. It is on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London ...

in 1898 and then served as

curate A curate () is a person who is invested with the ''care'' or ''cure'' (''cura'') ''of souls'' of a parish. In this sense, "curate" means a parish priest; but in English-speaking countries the term ''curate'' is commonly used to describe clergy w ...

in various parishes, including

Ealing Ealing () is a district in West London, England, west of Charing Cross in the London Borough of Ealing. Ealing is the administrative centre of the borough and is identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Plan. Ealing was hi ...

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. It forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a ...

, and English and Welsh Bicknor. In 1909, he was appointed

vicar A vicar (; Latin: '' vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English pr ...

France Lynch Chalford is a large village in the Frome Valley of the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire, England. It is to the southeast of Stroud about upstream. It gives its name to Chalford parish, which covers the villages of Chalford, Chalford Hill, Franc ...

, where he remained until 1926. He campaigned for the disestablishment of the

Church in Wales The Church in Wales ( cy, Yr Eglwys yng Nghymru) is an Anglican church in Wales, composed of six dioceses. The Archbishop of Wales does not have a fixed archiepiscopal see, but serves concurrently as one of the six diocesan bishops. The pos ...

. He was, from 1926 to 1932, vicar of Potterspury with Furtho and Yardley Gobion (1926–32), before his final appointment as

rector Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to: Style or title *Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations *Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...

Wrabness Wrabness is a small village and civil parish near Manningtree, Essex, England. The village is located six miles (10 km) west of Harwich. Wrabness railway station is served by trains on the Mayflower Line. Wrabness had a population of appr ...

from 1932 to 1957. He then retired to

Frinton-on-Sea Frinton-on-Sea is a seaside town and (as just Frinton) a former civil parish, now in the parish of Frinton and Walton, in the Tendring district of Essex, England. In 2018 it had an estimated population of 4,837. In 1931 the parish had a popul ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

. He died on 4 January 1964. He was a historian of early Britain, the Celtic church and Welsh law, although some of his theories were unorthodox. He translated and studied many early historical sources, with his publications including ''

Nennius Nennius – or Nemnius or Nemnivus – was a Welsh monk of the 9th century. He has traditionally been attributed with the authorship of the '' Historia Brittonum'', based on the prologue affixed to that work. This attribution is widely considere ...

's "History of the Britons"'' (1938) ''Coll Prydain'' (1950) and ''The Emergence of England and Wales'' (1956, 1959). Church history publications included journal articles on the lives of the saints and on church plate, ''Parochiale Wallicanum'' (1911), an analysis and translation of the Latin text of the ''Life of St David'' (1923), and ''Welsh Christian Origins'' (1934). He also edited ''Vitae Sanctorum Britanniae et Genealogiae'', an invaluable edition of Welsh saints' lives, mostly from the British Library Manuscript Vespasian A.xiv. He was also a contributor to many journals and newspapers. In 1909, he published ''Welsh Medieval Law'', a translation of Llyfr Cyfnerth; he later wrote an article on Welsh law for the ''Encyclopædia Britannica''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wade-Evans, Arthur 1875 births 1964 deaths Alumni of Jesus College, Oxford 20th-century Welsh Anglican priests 20th-century Welsh historians People from Fishguard People from Tendring (district) People from Chalford