MR. EVAN OWEN. PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.
EVAN OWEN, eldest son and heir of Robert and Rebecca, born in Merionethshire, Wales, 1682-3; died at Philadelphia Pennsylvania, 1727.Letters were granted on his estate to Mary, his widow, 27th October that year.
He married 10th mo. 11th, 1711, Mary, daughter of Dr. Richard Hoskins. The record of their marriage says "Evan Owen, son of Robert, of Merion Township, Philadelphia County, yeoman, deceased, and Mary Hoskins, daughter of Richard, practitioner of physick, deceased. .... Philadelphia Meeting." The witnesses were Owen, John and Robert Owen, Gainor Jones, John and Martha Cadwalader, and forty seven others.
Evan Owen, having sold his Merion land to his brother-in-law, Jonathan Jones, removed to Philadelphia, and was admitted to the freedom of the city in April, 1717; neither he nor his brother Robert, who was admitted with him, gave any occupation. He (Evan) became a member of Common Council, 1717, and was appointed Justice of the Peace of the Philadelphia County Courts, 1723, serving until his decease. He was Justice of Court of Common Pleas, Quarter Sessions, and Orphans' Court, commissioned 18th February, 1723. Became Associate Justice of the City Court and Alderman, 6th October, 1724. Justice of Orphans' Court from 5th December, 1724; was a Master of the Court of Equity, 1725; Treasurer of Philadelphia County from 1724 to his death.
Became a member of the Provincial Assembly, 1725, and Provincial Councillor of Pennsylvania 1726, being a Justice od the Court of Chancery the same year. While serving as a member of the Assembly, Evan Owen was, as we have seen, called to the Provincial Council, the Lieutenant Governor expressing a desire to ahve another Quaker at the board, and Preston and Fishbourne, whose advice was asked, recommended him.
Perhaps Evan's most important trust was as a Trustee of the Society of Free Traders, who had purchased several thousand acres in Pennsylvania.