George Allen was born in England about 1568 (although Allen researchers are not in agreement on the exact date, which some place anywhere between 1568-1586). He may have been born in either Somersetshire or Dorsetshire, England, or have at least resided in one of these places prior to emigrating. Lending some support for this belief is the fact that the Rev. Joseph Hull and many of the other families that emigrated with George appear to have been from one of these shires. George Allen is known to have married twice while still residing in England. The name of his first wife has not been definitely determined, although many sources cite her name as Katherine. This wife, rather than his second wife who accompanied him to Massachusetts (also named Katherine), is our ancestor. According to the roster of passengers making up the Hull party, Katherine (his second wife) was listed as being thirty years old in 1635, thereby indicating that she was probably born about 1605 in England.

Nothing is known for certain of George Allen's parentage, although some researchers believe that our George Allen was the son of John Allen of Saltford in Somersetshire, England. As with the assertion regarding George's first wife, noted below, there is no evidence that I know of to substantiate this. There is, moreover, strong evidence that indicates that this George Allen was still residing at Saltford in 1638, when he was involved in a court case regarding tenements in the Tything of Saltford. By 1638, our George Allen was already well established at Sandwich on Cape Cod. Aside from the fact that a person named George Allen was identified as living in Saltford, England during the 1630s, any connection to our George Allen appears to be based more on conjecture than supportable facts.

The same also appears to be true regarding the assertion that our George Allen was the son of Ralph Allen of Thurcaston, England. Even though there were two individuals named Ralph Allen who were associated with our George Allen in New Plymouth Colony, I am not aware of any evidence, other than name similarity, to support this contention either.

The circumstances of his arrival in Massachusetts are not in dispute. George, along with his (second) wife Katherine, sons William, George and Matthew and servant, Edward Poole, were among those who sailed from Weymouth, England on 20 Mar 1635 with Rev. Joseph Hull and his flock of 106 souls. The name of the ship that carried them is not known. They landed at Boston, Massachusetts on 6 May 1635 after a 48 day voyage. Reputedly Anapabtists, Rev. Hull and his flock were granted leave to settle at Wessaguscus Plantation on 8 July 1635 by the General Court at Boston. Wessaguscus was soon given municipal rights, at which time it was renamed Weymouth, and its inhabitants were allowed representation in the General Court at Boston.

In 1637 George Allen with Edmund Freeman and 7 or 8 others joined in buying the Township of Sandwich on the North shore of Cape Cod, an area inhabited by friendly Indians. George‘s name is on the first list of church members there in 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 a quarter mile from what became the site of the Quaker Friends Meeting House on the main road down the Cape – a home which stood until 1882. George and other members of his family later became Quakers.

More info at: http://wp.me/P2HCbU-U∼This memorial for the immigrant George Allen late of Sandwich, Mass. was transferred to the present maintainer several years ago. As a result, six later duplicate memorials were eliminated, several of which included erroneous, fictitious and/or largely unproven claims. Several claimed George had in excess of 20 children, many who never existed or were otherwise not his children. All personal flowers attached to the deleted duplicates were transferred to this surviving memorial.

A substantial bio sketch is forthcoming based, in part, on the biographical sketch in the Great Migrations Study Project, an online database of the New England Historical Genealogical Society (the NEHGS) based on Robert Charles Anderson's original 3-volume Great Migration Begins.

In the meantime, there is no justification for a claim George was a Quaker and is buried in a Quaker cemetery in Sandwich, Mass. George died many years prior to the initial appearance of Friends, or Quakers, not as residents but visiting there attempting to convert families to the Society of Friends.

Further, a 2013 memorial [108606946] erected in Jefferson County at the eastern end of Lake Ontario in northern New York is the gravestone of George's purported descendants. The monument has four sides, and is a cenotaph (a tomb or a monument erected in honor of a person or group of persons whose remains are elsewhere) that reflects the purported ancestry from George Allen leading to the Allen family buried in Jefferson County, NY. It has been improperly used as a basis for a duplicate memorial for the immigrant George Allen. However, only one of the four panels is used as the basis of the memorial. There is no proof that George Allen was born on the date and place claimed by that memorial. The second name on the panel shown, Ralph Allen, died testate in Dartmouth, Mass. in 1698; the third name, Ralph's son Joseph Allen, Sr., died testate in Shrewsbury, NJ in 1704; the fourth name, Joseph Allen, Jr., died testate in Dartmouth, Mass. in 1735. The balance of the ancestry leading to the Allen's actually buried in Pierrepont Manor cemetery is contained on subsequent panels of the monument.

3/20/2018