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FACTS, HEARSAY AND MEMORIES - Page 5 I shall now turn to the Allen family about which I have at hand a complete genealogy from B.C. 65-A.D.1900. Much of its findings of the Allens in Europe and England fail to arouse great interest in me although I have been accused of being an ancestor worshiper. That one Fitz Alan was the ancestor of the Stuart Kings leaves me cold. The name had at least a dozen spellings before settling on the present one. In 1635 only five years after the Puritans came to Boston, George I. Allen and his wife Catherine settled in Saugus. The following year they moved to Sandwich, Mass. His house was near the Friends Meeting House in that town. He was at first a Baptist but later joined the Society of Friends. All the Allens in this vicinity are descendants of George and Catherine Allen. Our line is the eighth generation, but carried on from my brother is now ninth and tenth. Names in order are George, Ralph, Increase, Benjamin, Francis, Robert, Stephen, and my mother, Esther, youngest daughter of Stephen. Ralph, in Sandwich, was fined and imprisoned for entertaining Quakers. He later joined them, and he was one of those Quakers to be driven out of Sandwich by the Puritans, and also to have their cattle, tools, and cooking utensils taken away. He is mentioned in Mary Hoxie Jones' book, ""First Hundred Years of Quakerism in America." Increase lived in the Allen's Neck section of Dartmouth, Benjamin, Francis, Robert and Stephen were residents of New Bedford. Stephen later came to Westport and owned the farm on lower Drift Road recently owned by Clifford Ashley, the artist and his wife now Mrs. Stephen Delano. Robert seemed to have acquired a considerable property, and it is recorded that he owned a large estate in the north part of New Bedford. Stephen Allen, although much beloved by his children and grandchildren was of an easy going disposition and through his lack of business ability and unmerited confidence placed in his advisers lost his share in the inheritance. He was twice married, first to Hannah Baker in 1817 who died in 1835 leaving him with eight children. Strange as it seems to me Ann Davis, born in 1807, married him in 1841 assuming the care and training of his large family. The regard in which she was held by her stepchildren and grandchildren gives evidence that what I have heard of her life and character is true. The qualities she exemplified were innate as I am sure her advantages were few and her education limited. Many there were to rise up and call her blessed. She was the mother of four, Mary E. (Allen) Gifford and Esther A. Allen Macomber, my mother. Two sons did not live to maturity. Her parents were Job and Sarah (Gifford) Davis and lived in Adamsville. A sampler done by Sarah Gifford and a framed pen and ink sketch with a copy of a religious poem all carefully wrought are in my possession. The death of Stephen Allen in 1863 and of his son Robert in 1866 made the sale of the farm necessary, and Ann Allen and her two daughters came to the house on Main Road below Central Village now owned by Vincent. Ann Allen had in her young days learned the trade of a tailoress from Keziah Gifford, the mother of the George H. Gifford for whom the familiar corner in Westport in named. The story is that when she once was stooping in front of the fireplace to test the heat of the big iron goose used in pressing, that George H. then a young many came up behind and kissed her while holding her helpless by the shoulders. She, not caring for his attention, set the hot goose down on the upper part of his leg so that his trousers were so scorched as to bear its imprint. 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21
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