James Evans

James Evans (1801–1846) was a Methodist minister, author, translator and developer of the Cree syllabic alphabet. Among the materials in the collection are correspondence and literary material, including articles, poems, and page proofs. Evans’s notebooks and his “Cree Syllabic Hymnbook,” a western Canadian “incunable,” is of significant interest to researchers of native North American history.

There are two ways to access the collection:
University of Toronto Catalogue:
Contains published items by and about Evans held in the entire University of Toronto Libraries system, including items in the collections at Victoria University Library. There are electronic texts available—please see selected resources below.

Guide to the James Evans Papers:
A detailed finding aid for manuscript and transcript materials contained in the James Evans fonds.

James Evans (1801–1846) was a teacher, Methodist minister and missionary, linguist, and author. He was born in Kingston-upon-Hull, England, the son of James Evans, ship’s captain, and Mary–. He married Mary Blithe Smith in 1822, and they had two daughters, one of whom died in childhood. He died in Kelby, England.

Evans went to school in Lincolnshire, England. In 1822 he followed his parents to Lower Canada. He found employment as a teacher near L’Original, Upper Canada. About three years later he and his wife moved to Augusta Township on the St Lawrence River, where he converted to Methodism. He accepted an appointment to the Rice Lake School for Indian children in 1828. Ordained in 1833, he was appointed to the St Clair Mission (near Port Sarnia) in 1834. In 1838, the Canada Conference sent him on a tour of the north shore of Lake Superior. In 1839 he met Governor George Simpson of the Hudson’s Bay Company, who in January 1840 agreed to support Methodist missionaries, named by the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society in Britain, in its territory. Evans, who since his return to Upper Canada had been serving as minister at Guelph, was appointed to Norway House, Manitoba, in April of that year. However, his concerns for the native peoples, and his location at a main transfer point of the HBC brought him into conflict with company policy and practice, culminating in accusations of sexual misconduct and a request for his removal by Simpson in 1845. The Wesleyan Society invited him back to England, where he was tried before Methodist church authorities. He was acquitted of sexual improprieties. Evans died suddenly of a heart attack following a missionary rally in Lincolnshire in November 1846. In 1955 his remains were brought from England and reburied at Norway House.

During his career Evans studied several native languages. He devised a syllabary for the Ojibwa (1836) and Cree (1840) languages, which he used for teaching, translating and writing. He translated and printed portions of the New Testament, hymns and other material. He published his book Speller and Interpreter, in Indian and English, for the use of the mission schools, and such as may desire to obtain a knowledge of the Ojibway tongue in 1837.

See: Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online.

John Maclean obtained the 2 boxes of James Evans’ Cree Syllabic Type at Norway House in 1925. Egerton Young received the letter from Ephraim Evans to James Evans from Margaret Tindale, a descendant of Ephraim Evans, in 1953. Prior custodial history of this letter, the type, and all other textual and graphic records is unknown. Victoria University Archives acquired the 3 reels of 35 mm microfilm from the University of Western Ontario in 1986.