Son of Chief-Justice William Allen

Attorney-General of Pennsylvania

Member of the Continental Congress
Opposed independence

Andrew Allen, a son of Chief-Justice William Allen, attended the Academy and College of Philadelphia (now the University of Pennsylvania) from 1751 to 1759; his student notebooks are housed in the University Archives. After graduating from the College of Philadelphia, he studied law first with his father and then at the Temple in London. After his return, Allen was admitted to the Philadelphia bar.

Allen became Provincial Attorney-General in 1769. He also held a number of local offices, including service as Philadelphia Recorder and member of the City Council. In 1776 he was a delegate in the Continental Congress, but resigned because he was opposed to independence. He travelled to New York where he was to advise the Committee of Safety on the city's defense. When the British drove Washington's army out and occupied New York, Allen fled to the British lines, fearing for his personal safety. He took the necessary oaths of allegiance to the king and then went to England. After he was attainted of treason by Act of Assembly, Andrew Allen's landed estate was confiscated by the American Congress.

Allen served as a trustee of the College and Academy of Philadelphia from 1775 until he fled the city as a Loyalist. Allen participated in a number of other cultural institutions in Philadelphia, and helped found the First City Troop, but he died in London in 1825.

SOURCE: University of Pennsylvania, Archives
REFERENCES
Lost Alumni, Matriculates, Dictionary of American Biography, Alumni Record, student lecture notes of Andrew, James and John Allen #1642




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