View source for Andrew Allen (Pennsylvania politician)

{{short description|American politician (1740–1825)}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2015}}
{{More footnotes needed|date=April 2010}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| image           = Andrew Allen member of the Continental Congress (NYPL b13049824-420811) (cropped).tiff
| caption         = Etching of Andrew Allen by [[Albert Rosenthal]]
| birth_date      = June 1740
| birth_place     = [[Philadelphia]], [[Province of Pennsylvania]], [[British America]]
| death_date      = {{death date and age|1825|3|7|1740|6||}}
| death_place     = [[London]], England
| spouse          = {{marriage|Sarah (Sally) Coxe|April 1768}}
| father          = [[William Allen (loyalist)|William Allen]]
| occupation      = lawyer
| alma_mater      = [[Academy and College of Philadelphia|College of Philadelphia]]
| office          = Member of the [[Second Continental Congress]]
| term_start      = 1775
| term_end        = June 1776<ref name=congbio>{{congbio|A000113}}</ref>
| office1         = Member of the [[Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly|Pennsylvania Assembly]]
| term_start1     = 1765
| term_end1       = 1775<ref name=congbio/>
|signature        = Andrew Allen signature.svg
}}
'''Andrew Allen''' (June 1740 – March 7, 1825) was a lawyer and official from the [[Province of Pennsylvania]]. Born into an influential family, Allen initially favored the colonial cause in the [[American Revolution]], and represented Pennsylvania in the [[Second Continental Congress]] from 1775 to 1776. Like many other wealthy elites in Pennsylvania, however, he resisted radical change, and became a [[Loyalist (American Revolution)|Loyalist]] after the [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]] and the [[Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776]].

== Early years ==
Allen was born in June 1740 into a prominent [[Philadelphia]] family; his father, [[William Allen (loyalist)|William Allen]],{{sfn|Johnson|1906|p=79|ignore-err=yes}} was a successful merchant and lawyer, and would later be the Chief Justice of the [[Supreme Court of Pennsylvania]]. Andrew graduated from the [[College of Philadelphia]] (later named the [[University of Pennsylvania]]) in 1759, [[read law]] under [[Benjamin Chew]], and then went to [[London]] to complete a legal education at the [[Inner Temple]].{{sfn|Johnson|1906|p=79|ignore-err=yes}} He returned to Philadelphia in 1765, was admitted to the bar, and began to practice law.{{sfn|Johnson|1906|p=79|ignore-err=yes}} That same year Allen was elected to the [[Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly|Pennsylvania Assembly]]. In 1766, he was appointed the colony's [[Attorney General]]. He married Sarah ("Sally") Coxe, sister of [[Tench Coxe]], in April 1768. During the same year he was granted membership to the [[American Philosophical Society]] through his election.{{sfn|Bell|1997|pp=237–243}} In 1770 his brother-in-law, Governor [[John Penn (governor)|John Penn]], gave him a seat on the [[Pennsylvania Provincial Council|Governor's Council]].

== Career ==
When tensions increased before the [[American Revolution]], Allen was one of those critical of the [[Intolerable Acts]] passed by the [[Parliament of Great Britain|British Parliament]] in 1774. He signed the non-importation agreement boycotting British goods in protest of the [[Boston Port Act]], and helped form an independent militia unit, the [[First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry]], on November 2, 1774. On June 30, 1775, he was appointed to the [[Committee of Safety (American Revolution)|Committee of Safety]] by the Assembly.

In 1775 Allen was elected by the Pennsylvania Assembly as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress. The instructions given to Pennsylvania's delegates prohibited them from supporting any measures that would lead to independence from Great Britain. Allen hoped that Congress would seek reconciliation with the mother country, and was dismayed when Congress began moving towards independence in 1776. He resigned from the First City Troop in April of that year. On May 1, he was elected to the Pennsylvania Assembly in a special by-election. The election of moderates like Allen demonstrated that the voting public was still cautious about independence. Radicals in Pennsylvania, however, responded by holding a constitutional convention to create a [[Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776|new constitution]] and a new, less conservative, General Assembly. When the Continental Congress began considering a [[resolution of independence]] in June 1776, Allen withdrew from Congress, not attending any sessions after June 14.

In December 1776, Allen finally switched sides. The situation in Philadelphia had become tense as a British army under [[William Howe, 5th Viscount Howe|General Howe]] drove [[George Washington]]'s forces [[New York and New Jersey campaign|out of New York]] and towards Pennsylvania. In his diary, James Allen, brother of Andrew, described the precarious situation of those Philadelphians who were suspected of being unsympathetic to the Revolution, and how the Allen family reacted:

{{blockquote|Houses were broken open, people imprisoned without any color of authority by private persons, and, as was said, a list of 200 disaffected persons made out, who were to be seized, imprisoned, and sent off to North Carolina; in which list, it was said, our whole family was put down. My brothers, under this dreadful apprehension, fled from Philadelphia to [[Union Township, Hunterdon County, New Jersey|Union]], where I went over to them. Soon after, against my judgment, they all went to [[Trenton, New Jersey|Trenton]], and claimed protection from General Howe's Army. From whence they went to New York, and there they now are, unhappily separated from their families, and like to be so for some time.|Edward de Lancey{{sfn|De Lancey|1877|pp=208–209}}}}

In 1777 Andrew Allen returned to Philadelphia with General Howe's army, but his stay lasted only as long as [[Philadelphia campaign|their occupation]], and he returned with them to New York when the British evacuated the city in 1778. From there he made his way to England. Thereafter he practiced law in London.

== Last years ==
The Pennsylvania Assembly [[Bill of attainder|attainted]] Allen of treason in 1781 and confiscated his properties, along with those of others in his family. After the war, the British government reviewed his losses, and the "Commission for Claims and Losses" awarded him a lifetime pension of £400. In 1792, Allen was pardoned by Pennsylvania. He returned to Philadelphia in 1794 to attempt to recover some of the old payments due to him under the provisions of the [[Jay Treaty]], but this was unsuccessful.

He went to [[London]] and renewed allegiance and his property was confiscated.{{sfn|Johnson|1906|p=79|ignore-err=yes}} He remained there the remainder of his life; he died on March 7, 1825.{{sfn|Johnson|1906|p=79|ignore-err=yes}}

== Notes ==
{{Reflist}}

== Sources ==
* {{cite book
 | last         = Bell
 | first        = Whitfield J.
 | author-link  = Whitfield Bell Jr.
 | editor-last  = Greifenstein
 | editor-first = Charles
 | title        = Patriot-Improvers: Biographical Sketches of Members of the American Philosophical Society. (3 vols.)
 | year         = 1997
 | volume       = 3
 | pages        = 237–243
 | location     = Philadelphia, Penn.
 | publisher    = American Philosophical Society
}}

*{{cite book |last=De Lancey |first=Edward F. |date=1877 |chapter=Chief Justice William Allen  |title=The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography  |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=cckbAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA202 202–210]}}
* {{cite BDA1906 |wstitle=Allen, Andrew |volume=1 |page=79}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite journal |last=Keith |first=Charles P. |title=Andrew Allen |journal=The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography |volume=10 |number=6 |year=1886 |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=c8MbAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA361 361–365]}}
* {{Cite DAB|last=Lincoln |first=Charles H. |title=Andrew Allen}}
*{{cite book |last=Treese |first=Lorett |year=1992 |title=The Storm Gathering: The Penn Family and the American Revolution |location=University Park |publisher=The Pennsylvania State University Press|isbn=0-271-00858-X}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Andrew Allen (Pennsylvania politician)|Andrew Allen}}
*{{cite web |title=Andrew Allen (1740-1825), University of Pennsylvania Archives |website=archives.upenn.edu | date=February 2, 2007 |url=http://www.archives.upenn.edu/histy/features/1700s/people/allen_andrew.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070202205743/http://www.archives.upenn.edu/histy/features/1700s/people/allen_andrew.html |archive-date=February 2, 2007 |url-status=dead |access-date=March 18, 2021}}

{{Authority control}}
{{Portal bar|Biography|British Empire|Pennsylvania|Philadelphia|Politics}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Allen, Andrew}}
[[Category:1740 births]]
[[Category:1825 deaths]]
[[Category:University of Pennsylvania alumni]]
[[Category:Continental Congressmen from Pennsylvania]]
[[Category:18th-century Pennsylvania politicians]]
[[Category:Loyalists in the American Revolution from Pennsylvania]]
[[Category:Members of the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly]]
[[Category:Members of the Pennsylvania Provincial Council]]
[[Category:Lawyers from Philadelphia]]
[[Category:Politicians from Philadelphia]]
[[Category:Recipients of American gubernatorial pardons]]
[[Category:American lawyers admitted to the practice of law by reading law]]
[[Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society]]
[[Category:19th-century American lawyers]]