After schooling in Bristol he became a student in November 1783 in the Baptist academy there, where his relative Dr. Caleb Evans was theological tutor.
Immediately on his assuming the office of pastor Evans published An Address humbly designed to promote the Revival of Religion, more especially among the General Baptists, London, 1793.
Evans's writings in the end amounted to some forty in number: sermons, tracts, prefaces, biographical and topographical notices, and schoolbooks.
The book was translated into Welsh, Merthyr Tydfil, 1808, and into various European languages, while several editions were issued in America, the first having appeared at Boston, 1807.
In his dedication of the fourteenth edition to Lord Erskine, Evans stated that although a hundred thousand copies had then been sold, he had parted with the copyright for £10, but he consoled himself by reflecting that the popularity of the book was due to its impartiality.
A sequel to the Sketch was A Preservative against the Infidelity and Uncharitableness of the Eighteenth Century; or, Testimonies in behalf of Christian Candour and Unanimity, by Divines of the Church of England, of the Kirk of Scotland, and among the Protestant Dissenters (an essay on the right of private judgment prefixed), 1796; 3rd edit., The Golden Centenary, London, 1806.
Other works are: In August 1795 he married Mary, daughter of John Wiche, for nearly half a century General Baptist minister at Maidstone.