Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Allies, Thomas William

by W. B. Owen

ALLIES, THOMAS WILLIAM (1813–1903), theologian, born at Midsomer Norton, Somerset, on 12 Feb. 1813, was son of Thomas Allies, then curate of Henbury and later rector of Wormington, by his wife Frances Elizabeth Fripp, daughter of a Bristol merchant. His mother died a week after his birth, and he was brought up by his father's second wife, Caroline Hillhouse. After education at Bristol grammar school he entered Eton in April 1827 under Edward Coleridge. There in 1829 he was the first to win the Newcastle scholarship. He matriculated at Wadham College, Oxford, in 1828, where he was exhibitioner from 1830-3, graduated B. A. with a first class in classics in 1832, proceeded M.A. in 1837, was fellow from 1833 till 1841, and humanity lecturer 1838-9.

Allies early came under the influence of John Henry Newman, and with him and Pusey was soon in constant intercourse. His sympathy with the tractarians was strong, but his loyalty to the Anglican church was only shaken slowly. After a tour in France and Italy during 1836 he took holy orders in 1838, and assisted William Dodsworth [q. v.] at Christ Church, St. Pancras, in 1839. From 1840 to 1842 he was examining chaplain to Dr. Blomfield, bishop of London, who in June 1842 presented him to the living of Launton, Bicester, Oxfordshire. Travels in France in 1845 and 1847 with John Hungerford Pollen [q. v. Suppl. II] quickened doubt of the validity of the Anglican position, and a statement of his views in his 'Journal in France' (published February 1848) brought on him the censure of Samuel Wilberforce, bishop of Oxford. Study of the Fathers, and especially of Suarez's work, 'De Erroribus Sectæ Anglicanæ,' combined with the Gorham decision on baptismal regeneration in 1850, shattered his faith in the established church, and in his 'Royal Supremacy' (1850) he forcibly presented the Roman point of view (cf. Liddon's Life of E. B. Pusey, iii. 257 seq.). In October 1850 he resigned his Launton living and joined the Roman communion. He removed to Golden Square, London, where he took pupils, and later for a time to the Priory, 21 North Bank, St. John's Wood, the house afterwards inhabited by George Eliot [q. v.]. From August 1853 until his retirement on a pension in 1890 he was secretary of the catholic poor school committee in John Street, Adelphi (instituted in 1847), and actively promoted catholic primary education. To his energy was due the foundation of the Training College of Notre Dame, Liverpool, in 1855, of the Training College for Women at the Convent of the Sacred Heart, Wands worth, in 1874, and of the St. Mary's Training College for Men in Hammersmith. In March 1855 he became first professor of modern history at the new Catholic University of Ireland, Dublin, under Newman's rectorship. On his lectures there he based his voluminous 'The Formation of Christendom' (8 vols. 1865–95; popular edit. 1894 and following years). The work trenchantly expounds St. Peter's predominance in history. Among Allies's intimate friends in his last years were Lord Acton and Aubrey de Vere, who addressed a sonnet to him on the publication of his 'Holy See,' the sixth volume of his 'Formation of Christendom,' in 1888. In 1885 Pope Leo XIII created him knight commander of St. Gregory, and in 1893 he received through Cardinal Vaughan the pope's gold medal for merit. In 1897 his health declined, and he died at St. John's Wood on 17 June 1903, being buried at Mortlake by the side of his wife. He married on 1 Oct. 1840, at Marylebone parish church, Eliza Hall, sister of Thomas Harding Newman (an Oxford fellow student), and had issue five sons and two daughters. His wife, who joined the Roman catholic church five months before himself, predeceased him on 24 Jan. 1902. A portrait, painted by Mrs. Carpenter in 1830, is reproduced in the memoir by his daughter Mary (1907).

Allies, one of the most learned of the Oxford converts to Rome, traced the growth of his opinions in 'A Life's Decision' (1880; 2nd edit. 1894). Other works by Allies are:

1. 'The Church of England cleared from the Charge of Schism,' 1846; 2nd edit. 1848.
2. 'The Royal Supremacy,' 1850.
3. 'The See of St. Peter,' 1850; 4th edit. 1896.
4. 'St. Peter, his Name and Office,' 1852; 2nd edit. 1871; new edit. 1895.
5. 'Dr. Pusey and the Ancient Church,' 1866.

The last four were reprinted with Allies's other controversial writings in 'Per Crucem ad lucem,' 2 vols. 1879.

[Thomas William Allies, by Mary Allies, 1907; art. in Catholic Encyclopædia, vol. i. 1907, by the same writer; The Times, 2 July 1903; Tablet, 20 June 1903; Liddon's Life of E. B. Pusey, 1894, vol. iii.; Life of J. H. Pollen, 1912; Wilfrid Ward, Life of J. H. Newman, 1912.]

W. B. O.