William Allen (loyalist)
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| William Allen | |
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| Born | 5 August 1704 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
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| Died | 6 September 1780 Mount Airy, Pennsylvania |
| Occupation | Merchant, Jurist |
| Spouse | Margaret Hamilton |
William Allen (August 5, 1704 – September 6, 1780) was a wealthy merchant, Chief Justice of the Province of Pennsylvania, and mayor of Philadelphia. At the time of the American Revolution, Allen was one of the wealthiest and most powerful men in Philadelphia. A loyalist, Allen agreed that the colonies should seek to redress their grievances with British Parliament through constitutional means, but he disapproved of the movement towards independence.[1]
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[edit] Life and career
Born in Philadelphia in 1704, Allen was the son of William Allen, Sr., a successful Philadelphia merchant of Scots-Irish descent who had emigrated to America from Dungannon, County Tyrone, Ireland. The elder Allen had risen to prominence through close ties to William Penn, proprietor of Pennsylvania.[2] As a youth, Allen spent much of his time in England. In 1720, he was admitted to the Middle Temple in London to study law, and later became a pensioner at Clare Hall, Cambridge.
Upon his father's death in 1725, Allen returned to Philadelphia to manage the family's business interests. In 1730, he purchased, at his own expense, the property on which the Pennsylvania State House, later known as Independence Hall, was to be erected. He was made mayor of the city of Philadelphia in 1735, and celebrated the opening of the nearly complete State House the following year by having a feast for all citizens and guests of the city—a celebration that was described as "the most grand, the most elegant entertainment that has been made in these parts of America." [1]
In 1734, Allen married Margaret Hamilton, daughter of Andrew Hamilton, famed defense lawyer in the 1735 Zenger case, and brother of James Hamilton. William and Margaret had six children: John, Andrew, James, William, Anne, and Margaret. Like their father, Allen's sons became loyalists in the American Revolution.
Allen served as Chief Justice of the colony's Supreme Court from 1750 to 1774, at which time he resigned due to increasing tensions resulting from his loyalist beliefs and health concerns. He was succeeded by Benjamin Chew.
In 1760, encouraged by William Smith, Allen sponsored the young painter Benjamin West's trip to Italy, establishing a £100 line of credit on which West could rely and, in a letter of introduction in 1760, calling him “a young ingenious Painter of this City, who is desirous to improve himself in that Science, by visiting Florence & Rome.” A year later Allen and his brother-in-law, the Governor James Hamilton, provided more money for West--who would turn out to be one of the century's most important painters and, from 1792 until his death in 1820, the president of Britain's Royal Academy. West referred to Allen as “the principal of my patrons.”[3]
Allen was a Freemason and a member of St. John's Lodge No. 1, "Moderns," Philadelphia. He was appointed Provincial Grand Master of Pennsylvania, "Moderns" on June 24, 1731, and is recognized not only as the first Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, but also the youngest (he was 26 years old when installed). Allen served two terms as Grand Master, the first from 1731-1732, the second from 1747-1761.[4]
A loyalist, he went in 1774 to England, where he published The American Crisis: A Letter, Addressed by Permission of the Earl Gower, Lord President of the Council, on the present alarming Disturbances in the Colonies, which proposed a plan for restoring the American colonies to crown rule. Allen returned to Philadelphia in 1779, and died at Mount Airy, his mansion outside Philadelphia, the following year.
[edit] Legacy
William Allen founded the city of Allentown, Pennsylvania in 1762. Originally called Northamptontown (or Northampton Towne), the property in Northampton County, Pennsylvania on which the town was established was part of a 5,000-acre (20 km²) estate purchased by Allen in 1735. He hoped that Northamptontown would displace Easton as the seat of Northampton County and become a commercial center due to its location on the Lehigh River and its proximity to Philadelphia. Allen gave the property to his son, James, who built a summer residence there in 1770, near the site of one of his father's hunting lodges. This building, Trout Hall, survives today as the city's oldest building.
In 1811, the town was incorporated as a borough. In 1812, Lehigh County was formed from the western half of Northampton County, and Northamptontown was selected to be the county seat. The borough was officially renamed "Allentown" in 1838, after years of popular usage and in honor of Allen. Today, Allentown is the third largest city in Pennsylvania.
Allentown's William Allen High School, one of Pennsylvania's largest public high schools, is named in his honor.
Allen built a mansion and country estate on Germantown Avenue in 1750, and the area eventually took the estate's name, Mount Airy, as its own.[5] The estate stood on what is today the campus of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. Allens Lane, a street in Mount Airy, is also named in his honor.
| Legal offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Jeremiah Langhorne |
Chief Justice, Supreme Court of Pennsylvania 1750–1774 |
Succeeded by Benjamin Chew |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by Thomas Lawrence |
Mayor of Philadelphia 1735–1736 |
Succeeded by Clement Plumsted |
[edit] References
- ^ a b De Lancey, Edward F. "Chief Justice William Allen." The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 1877: 202-210.
- ^ Norman S. Cohen. "Allen, William". American National Biography Online, February 2000.
- ^ William Allen to David Barclay & Sons (March 10, 1760)and William Allen to David Barclay & Sons (August 19, 1761), William Allen Letterbook, 113, 137-38, in Shippen Family Papers 1749-1860, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; Benjamin West to William Allen (September 1, 1763), quoted in E. P. Richardson, “West’s Voyage to Italy, 1760, and William Allen,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 102, no. 1 (January 1978): 3-26 (quotation, 24)
- ^ The Past Grandmasters Gallery - Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, accessed September 19, 2006
- ^ Philadelphia Neighborhoods and Place Names, L-P. Retrieved on 2006-11-06.
[edit] External links
- Brief biography and portrait at the University of Pennsylvania.
- "William Allen, Provincial Man of Affairs", by Ruth Moser Kistler, Pennsylvania History, Vol. 1, pp. 165-174, 1934
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