EVANS, MATILDA JANE (1827-1886), teacher and novelist under the pseudonym Maud
Jeanne Franc, was born on 7 August 1827 at Peckham Park, Surrey, England, the
elder of two surviving daughters of Henry Congreve, oilman, and his wife Elizabeth
Ann, née Jacob. An unfortunate investment robbed her father of a large inheritance
and in 1852 he sailed with his family for South Australia where two sons had
already migrated in 1849; Matilda Jane's mother died at sea aged 49 and her father
died by 'visitation of God' on 18 December 1852 at North Adelaide.
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Australian Dictionary of Biography Online
Matilda Evans arrived in Adelaide with her family in 1851. Her first novel, Marian, or the Light of Someone's Home was completed in 1861 while Evans was working as a governess near Mt Barker. After the death of her husband, Ephraim Evans, she opened a school at Angaston and resumed writing novels. Her works, which always had religious and temperance themes, included Vermont Vale: or Home Pictures in Australia (1866), Emily's Choice: An Australian Tale (1867), Minnie's Mission: an Australian Temperance Tale (1869) and Golden Gifts (1869). Evans opened Angaston House in North Adelaide in 1868. A collected edition of her fourteen novels was republished several times.
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Australian Women's Register