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This article is from the Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, 6 volumes, edited by William S. Powell. Copyright ©1979-1996 by the University of North Carolina Press. Used by permission of the publisher. For personal use and not for further distribution. Please submit permission requests for other use directly to the publisher.

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Evans, George

by Claiborne T. Smith, Jr., 1986

ca. 1745–ca. 1784

George Evans, Revolutionary patriot, was born in Bath, Beaufort County, the son of Richard and Mary Lillington Evans. In 1758 he moved with his brother Richard to what is now Pitt County, and in 1773 he represented Pitt in the colonial assembly. He early became active in the Revolutionary cause and was a member of the standing committee of Pitt in 1774. Later he was a member of the committee to assist the vestry of St. Michael's Parish in collecting for the benefit of the sufferers in Boston. From the beginnings he was a member of the Safety Committee of Pitt and later was made chairman. In 1775 he was appointed first major of the Pitt militia. Although a delegate to the Congress at Hillsborough in August 1775, he declined to serve, saying that "circumstances would not permit his attendance." In November 1776, he was a delegate to the Congress in Halifax that drew up the state constitution. He later declined to serve as lieutenant colonel. As his last public service, he represented Pitt County in the House of Commons in 1782.

Evans married Anne Hines, the daughter of Peter and Elizabeth Edmunds Hines of the Old Sparta section of Edgecombe County. His will was destroyed when the early Pitt County wills were burned, but deeds on record in Edgecombe show that his wife's brothers Henry and Peter Hines were his executors and all property was devised to his son Peter and an unborn child. The unborn child was Susanna Evans, who died unmarried in Edgecombe County in 1808. His widow married Benjamin Spruill of Tyrrell County who died in 1791. By her second husband the widow Evans had two daughters and a son, George Evans Spruill (A.B. Yale, 1814), who was a member of the legislature from Halifax County in 1826 and 1828.

References:

Walter Clark, ed., State Records of North Carolina, vols. 14, 16, 17, 19, 23 (1896, 1899, 1901, 1904).

Deeds and wills of the counties of Beaufort and Edgecombe, deeds of Pitt County (North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh).

Fitzhugh Lee Morris, comp., Lineage Book of the North Carolina Society S. A. R. (1951).

William L. Saunders, ed., Colonial Records of North Carolina, vols. 9, 10 (1890).

Additional Resources:

"CSR Documents by Pitt County (N.C.). Committee of Safety." Colonial and State Records of North Carolina. Documenting the American South, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. https://docsouth.unc.edu/csr/index.html/creators/csr10689 (accessed February 21, 2014).

King, Henry T. (Henry Thomas). Sketches of Pitt County, a brief history of the county, 1704-1910; illustrations and maps. Raleigh, Edwards. 1911. https://archive.org/details/sketchesofpittco00king (accessed February 21, 2014).

Subjects: 
Biographies
Military personnel
Public officials
Authors: 
Smith, Claiborne T., Jr.
Origin - location: 
Beaufort County
Bath
Pitt County
From: 
Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, University of North Carolina Press.

1 January 1986 | Smith, Claiborne T., Jr.