Sebastian Evans was born on 2 March 1830 in Market Bosworth, Leicestershire, the youngest son of Arthur and Anne Dickinson Evans. Evans's father, an Anglican clergyman, master of the local grammar school, and prolific writer of prose and poetry, educated his children himself and communicated his energy and taste for the arts to more than one. John Evans became an eminent geologist, archaeologist, and numismatist, served as president of many scientific societies, and was eventually knighted. Anne Evans, long an invalid, wrote poetry and music; a volume of her works was published posthumously in 1880, with a memoir by Anne Ritchie, Thackeray's daughter.

In 1849 Sebastian Evans won a scholarship to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he took his B.A. in 1853. He earned an M.A. in 1857, the year of his marriage to Elizabeth Goldney. One of the anecdotes included by Mrs. Ritchie in the memoir accompanying Anne Evans's Poetry and Music...