On 17 November 1823 John Evans was born at Britwell Court in Buckinghamshire. His parents, the Revd Arthur Benoni Evans and Anne Dickinson, had married at Plumstead in south-east London in 1819. They had six children: a daughter, Anne, born in 1820, followed by their first son, Arthur, in 1822, then John, their second son, in 1823, George in 1825, Emma in 1828 and Sebastian in 1830.

Their first two children, Anne and Arthur were both born at the Royal Military College at Sandhurst, where their father Arthur B. Evans taught classics and history. After 17 years at Sandhurst, in 1822 the Evanses rented the large house, Britwell Court, to enable them to establish a training facility to prepare young men entering the army. They regretfully left Britwell Court in 1829 when Arthur B. Evans took on the headmaster's position at Market Bosworth grammar school in Leicestershire.

the Evans family tree