established at Mount Airy, now in the Twenty-second Ward of the City of Philadelphia, and in the possession of the family of the late James Gowen, Esquire. In 1765 he laid out a town in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, on a tract of land lying on the Lehigh River, which we now know as the flourishing city of Allentown.
Allen was a public spirited man, generous with his means, giving his services as Chief Justice gratuitously that he might devote the salary of the station to charities. Besides his advances on the State House purchases, he advanced on one occasion a good part of the tax payable by the Proprietaries under a bill proposed for raising revenue, in the deadlock between the Lieutenant Governor and the Assembly, the former pressing for money for military uses, and not being free to consent to a law which included the Proprietary estates in the assessment for taxation, and the Assembly refusing to vote the means of defence unless such assessment with taxation was agreed to; the gentlemen of Philadelphia made up the sum which it was estimated would be due from the Proprietaries, and then the Assembly passed the necessary money bills. When in England on a visit in 1763 he labored with the home authorities against any stamp duty, and to him was given the credit of securing the postponement of its consideration to another session of Parliament. He joined the American Philosophical Society shortly after its reorganization in 1769, as did also his three sons.
His presence at the meetings of the Trustees was sufficiently uniform to attest his continued interest in the welfare of the institution, though his regular attendance at the Trustees' meetings in the early years of its work was more marked and regular. But amid all his public duties he attended at intervals, and the last meeting we find his name recorded was 1 June, 1779, a few months prior to the abrogation of the charter. He was one of the organisers of St. John's Lodge Philadelphia, and in 1732 was elected Grand Master for one year.[1] He was after-
- ↑ Pennsylvania Gazette, 24 June, 1732.
