Corporation on the conclusion of the peace of 1763. Pitt objected to the peace being described as ‘adequate,’ and Allen avowed himself entirely responsible for the insertion of the word. That they continued friends is, however, shown by Pitt's writing to Mrs. Allen on her husband's death, ‘I fear not all the example of his virtues will have power to raise up to the world his like again,’ and by Allen's leaving to Pitt, by his will, 1,000l., ‘as the best of friends, as well as the most upright and ablest of ministers that has adorned our country.’ Pope left Allen 150l. by his will, that sum ‘being, to the best of my calculation, the account of what I have received from him, partly for my own, and partly for charitable uses.’ Allen quietly observed, ‘He forgot to add the other 0 to the 150,’ and sent the money to the Bath Hospital. This was an institution in which he took a warm interest, giving all the stone, and 1,000l. besides. A ward of this building is called after him, and a bust portrait is preserved there, as well as another bust and an oil painting at the Guildhall. He also cased the exterior of St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London with stone, at his own expense. Allen's known acts of benevolence are too numerous to mention. He gave away more than 1,000l. a year. On his way to London in 1764 he was taken ill at Maidenhead, and returned to Bath to die on 29 June in that year. A mural tablet is erected to his memory in the south aisle of Bathampton Church, a part of the structure which he rebuilt in 1754. His remains were interred in the neighbouring churchyard of Claverton, where there is a pyramid recording his age, the day of his death, and his ‘full hopes of everlasting happiness in another state.’ Ralph Allen was rather above the middle height, of stout build, ‘very grave and well-looking,’ says Derrick, extremely plain in his costume, and remarkably courteous in his behaviour. His character has been drawn in the most glowing terms, not only, as we have seen, by Pitt, but also by Warburton, Hurd, Mrs. Delany, and others, all bearing the strongest testimony to his simplicity, his benevolence, his splendid hospitality, his strong natural abilities, his superior good sense, and his domestic virtues. His second wife was a Miss Elizabeth Holder, by whom he had an only child, Ralph, who became comptroller of the Bye Letter Office, and of whom little further is known; his nephew, Thomas Daniell, was a wealthy merchant of Truro, whose son, Ralph Allen Daniell, was M.P. for West Looe from 1806 to 1813, and built the handsome mansion of Trelissick, which overlooks Falmouth harbour.
[Chatham Correspondence (1838); Thackeray's Life of Lord Chatham; Wood's Essay towards a description of Bath; Derrick's Letters written from Liverpool; Thicknesse's New Bath Guide, 1778; Hurd's Works of Bishop Warburton, vol. i. ed. 1811; Collinson's History of Somerset; Brayley and Britton's Beauties of England and Wales; Egan's Walks through Bath; Lætitia Hawkins's Anecdotes; Polwhele's Biographical Sketches; Bartlett's History of the Parish of St. Blazey; Nichols's Literary Anecdotes; Nichols's Illustrations; Cornhill Magazine, vol. xxvii.; Annual Register, 1763; Gentleman's Magazine, 1764; Kilvert's Remains, and his ‘Ralph Allen and Prior Park;’ Quarterly Review, 1875; Earle's Guide to the Knowledge of Bath; Monkland's Literature of Bath; Tunstall's Rambles about Bath; Wright's Historic Guide to Bath; Rede's Anecdotes and Biography; Autobiography of Mrs. Delany, iii. 608, ed. 1861; Calendar of Home Office Papers, 1760–65; Royal Magazine, vol. ix. 1763; Egerton MSS. British Museum, 1947 and 1955.]
ALLEN, THOMAS (1542–1632), mathematician, was born at Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, 21 Dec. (St. Thomas's Day), 1542, being a descendant, through six generations, of Henry Allan, or Alan, lord of the manor of Bucknall, in the same county. He was admitted a scholar of Trinity College, Oxford, 4 June 1561, proceeded to his B.A. degree 13 May 1563; was chosen fellow of his college in 1565, and proceeded to his M.A. degree 21 April 1567. Being studious and averse from taking holy orders, he left his college and fellowship, and retired to Gloucester Hall about 1570. He became an eminent mathematician, philosopher, and antiquary, and was invited to visit the houses of noblemen of his own and foreign nations. Albertus Laski, palatinate of Sieradz in Poland, while on a visit to England in 1583, vainly invited Allen to go and live with him in that country.
He spent some time under the roof of Henry, earl of Northumberland, the great patron of mathematicians, probably at Sion House, where he became acquainted with those ‘Atlantes of the mathematical world,’ the famous Dr. John Dee, Thomas Harriot, Nathaniel Taporley, and Walter Warner. He was highly respected by, and corresponded with, other famous men of his time, as Sir Thomas Bodley, William Camden, Sir Robert Cotton, Selden, and Sir H. Spelman. Robert, earl of Leicester, chancellor of the university of Oxford and Queen Elizabeth's favourite, offered him a bishopric, but he preferred a life of retirement. He is described by Fuller as having ‘succeeded to the skill and scandal of Friar Bacon.’ His skill in mathematics and astrology, and the great
