William Allen (loyalist) - Life and Career

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 immigrated to America from Dungannon, County Tyrone, Ireland with his brother John and father. The elder Allen had risen to prominence through close ties to William Penn, the proprietor of Pennsylvania.

As a youth, Allen spent much of his time in England for his education and refinement. In 1720, he was admitted to the Middle Temple in London to study law, and at the same time became a pensioner at Clare College, Cambridge.

Upon his father's death in 1725, Allen returned to Philadelphia to manage the family's business interests. In the spring of 1729, Allen was named alongside lawyer Andrew Hamilton (his future father-in-law) as a trustee for the purchase and building fund to develop the state house in Philadelphia, then the capital of the province. Both men were authorized to buy the land for the project. By October of 1730, the next year, Allen and Hamilton began to purchase lots on Chestnut Street at their own expense, the property on which the Pennsylvania State House (later known as Independence Hall), was to be built. In 1735, Allen was appointed as mayor of the city of Philadelphia. The next year, he celebrated the opening of the nearly complete State House by having a feast for all residents and guests of the city; it was described at the time as "the most grand, the most elegant entertainment that has been made in these parts of America."

By the will of his father-in-law Andrew Hamilton, dated July 31 – August 1, 1741, Allen inherited all the land of the Yard for the state house and its surrounding public grounds. They were to be managed by him and his brother-in-law James Hamilton. On September 13, 1761 Allen and Hamilton conveyed Lot no. 1 and the other pieces of land acquired to Isaac Norris II and the other trustees of the province. This completed the Yard: the site of the state house and its surrounding public space.

Allen was appointed as as Chief Justice of the colony's Supreme Court, serving from 1750 to 1774. 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 had sponsored the young painter Benjamin West's trip to Italy. He established a £100 line of credit for West and, in a letter of introduction in 1760, called 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. He developed as one of the century's most important painters and, from 1792 until his death in 1820, served as the president of Britain's Royal Academy. West referred to Allen as "the principal of my patrons."

Allen was a Freemason, a member of St. John's Lodge No. 1, "Moderns," Philadelphia, known as the Tun Tavern Lodge. Appointed Provincial Grand Master of Pennsylvania, "Moderns" on June 24, 1731, he is recognized not only as the first Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, but also the youngest (only 26 years old when installed). Allen served two terms as Grand Master, the first from 1731–32, the second from 1747–61.

A Loyalist, Allen 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. He stayed there throughout most of the American Revolution, not returning to Philadelphia until 1779, after the British Army had evacuated. He died at Mount Airy, his mansion outside Philadelphia, the following year, before the end of the war in 1781.