eorge Allen, a yeoman farmer from Somerset,
England was "the first to New England and ancestor to all
the Allens of Sandwich, Old Dartmouth, and New Bedford,
Massachusetts who later migrated inland to northern New York
State." With his wife Catherine, sons William, George, and
Matthew, and servant Edward Poole, George sailed "from
Weymouth, England on 20 Mar 1635 with Rev. Joseph Hull and his
flock of 100 souls" when the early Puritans were leaving the
motherland by the thousands with their very lives endangered by
the persecutions of Archbishop Laud in the reign of Charles I.
They landed at Boston, Mass. 6 May 1635 after a 48-day voyage.
The Rev. Hull and his followers were reputedly Anabaptists, a
much reviled early Protestant sect which strenuously objected to
infant baptism and advocated civil and political equality at a
date when "Protestant" really meant "Pro-Testant"
and "Pro-Tester" though our use of the word is so
casual that we have all but forgotten its original meaning. Rev.
Hull and his flock, including the Allens, first settled at Lynn,
Massachusetts but in 1637, George Allen with Edmund Freeman and
seven or eight others joined in buying the Township of Sandwich
on the North shore of Cape Cod, then an undisturbed wilderness
inhabited only by friendly Indians. George’s name is on the
first list of church members there (1638) and in 1639 he was
elected "Constable, a very important office, representing
the entire civil authority for the orderly proceedings of the
Township." In 1640-42, he was Deputy to the General Court at
Plymouth and in 1641 was one of a committee to divide the land
among the settlers and given 6 1/2 acres for this task. In 1646
he built his home about 1/4 mile from the Quaker Friends Meeting
House on the main road down the Cape - a home which was still
standing 236 years later in 1882, when it was taken down. The
name of George Allen’s first wife who died in England is
unknown but his second wife was a woman named Catherine Starke
who at George's death in 1648 married a John Collins. By the two
wives there were 10 sons, some of whom had come to New England
and were living around Boston before their father landed in
America. George died at Sandwich, Mass. on 2 May 1648 aged 80
years, leaving a curious will which names five sons and leaves
bequests to five others, presumably younger sons because he lists
them as "least" and there is no mention of daughters
although there were several. To his wife Catherine, his will
specifies "the house and household staff, an old cow, a
certain parcel of land, but if she remarries these are to be
disposed of and the proceeds given to the five least children."
She remarried becoming Mrs. John Collins so "the five least"
children undoubtedly got the proceeds. The order of the ages of
his children are uncertain and there may have been more sons and
surely some daughters. The following was taken from "Representative Men and Old Families of Southeastern Massachusetts" Volume I, by J.H. Beers & Company, Chicago, 1912, pages 350-: Although George Allen, the immigrant, was never a resident of Old Dartmouth, yet as the ancestor of those who were actual settlers here he is of great interest to us, and the records are fortunately sufficiently complete to enable us to outline a fairly complete account of his connection with the early days of the settlements grouped about Buzzard’s Bay. George Allen was undoubtedly a yeoman farmer, living in the County of Somerset, England, when the Rev. Joseph Hull collected his little company together to Emigrate to America. He was probably not a member of the gentry, as the Heraldic Visitation of Somerset, England shortly before his emigration does not include his name, and therefore neither he nor his descendants were qualified to bear a coat of arms. He joined the party of Joseph Hull and sailed from Weymouth March 20, 1635, arriving at Boston May 6 and remaining there until July, when the General Court granted the permission to settle at Weymouth. He may have been at Lynn, Mass. during the wait, as a George Allen is recorded there about this time. His presence in Weymouth, however, is plainly recorded, with others of the Hull company, in the list of proprietors of land in that town. In the list made not later than 1644 land is described as of George Allen and also land of Ralph Allen, who although not coming in the same ship, was in all probability his son. But although George Allen plainly held land in Weymouth, he did not remain there long, for in 1637 he is recorded in Sandwich, Mass. Although not one of Edmund Freeman’s company to whom the grant of Sandwich was made, he appears among the members of the first church in 1638, and in 1639 was constable. In 1640-41-42 he was deputy to the General Court at Plymouth, and in 1641 was one of the committee to divide lands in Sandwich, and was granted six and one half acres. In 1646 he built a house in Sandwich about a quarter mile from the Quaker meeting house on the main road to the Cape (Cape Cod), which stood until about 1882, when it was taken down. He died in 1648, and was buried on May 2nd of that year. We do not know his age, but he is often referred to as aged, and his name does not appear in 1643 in the list of those between sixteen and sixty able to bear arms, so at that time he was more than sixty years old. He is said to have been an Anabaptist before leaving England. His will, which was made in 1648, was probated August 7, 1649, and made his wife Catherine executrix and named Ralph Allen and Richard Bourne as overseers. In his will he gives "unto all my children twelve pence apiece." To his Matthew he gives one calf and five shillings; to his wife the old cow and also the house and household stuff for life, but if she remarries they are to be disposed of and divided to the five least children. To the five least children he leaves one cow each. To his son William he leaves a meadow, and to his sons Henry and Samuel the rest of the meadow. The adventure in Barque "Heave" he leaves to his wife and the five least children. His wife Catherine was married again to John Collins, and appears to have gone to Boston, as in 1655 Henry and Samuel Allen of Boston "deed to George Allen of Sandwich a parcel of land in Sandwich which came to them from their father, George Allen, with consent of their mother, Catherine Collins, who has rights therein." We do not know the names of all of George's children, but some we can identify as follows: George, Ralph, Samuel, William, Matthew, Henry, Francis, James, and Gideon. In all probability the last two belong to the "five least" children mentioned in the will and were the children of Catherine, and it is possible that Francis, who is not mentioned in the will, was also a child of Catherine. The others were undoubtedly children of a first wife, whose name is unknown. Of children, Ralph and Samuel seem to have come over at an earlier date, and Ralph we find in Weymouth, and a Samuel who is said to have been in Braintree before 1635, when he was admitted a freeman, is said to have been in 1620 of Bridgewater in Somersetshire, England, and is undoubtedly of this family. After the death of George Allen, the family began to scatter. Ralph, George, William, Matthew, and Francis remained in Sandwich; Henry and Gideon moved to Connecticut; James went to Martha's Vineyard; and Samuel was in Braintree. Torrey’s "New England Marriages Prior to 1700" states on page 10 that George Allen died in 1648 at the age of 70, not 80 as the above sources indicate. [STACYN.GED]
