William Allen (84)

William Allen (5 August 1704–6 September 1780) was a jurist, politician, merchant, and landowner, and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1768. Born in Philadelphia, Allen voyaged to England in 1720 to study law at London’s Middle Temple. Following his father’s death in 1725, he returned to Pennsylvania, where he expanded his landholdings through speculation and improved them with copper mines and ironworks. Along with his mercantile ventures, these projects made possible the lavish lifestyle to which he’d grown accustomed in England. As one of the wealthiest men in the colony, Allen donated to the Pennsylvania Hospital and the College of Philadelphia, of which he was also a trustee. He was a patron of the painters Benjamin West and John Singleton Copley, and he loaned the local government the funds needed to purchase the land on which Independence Hall was built. Allen’s social prestige paved the way for a successful political career. In 1727 he became a member of the Philadelphia Council, and from 1730 to 1739 he led the proprietary party in the Pennsylvania Assembly alongside his father-in-law Andrew Hamilton. In 1750 Allen’s brother-in-law, Pennsylvania Governor (and APS member) James Hamilton, named him Chief Justice of the state’s Supreme Court. Allen continued to lead the proprietary party during its acrimonious disputes with the Quaker party during the French and Indian War. Although he traveled to England in 1763 to oppose the Sugar Act and proposed Stamp Act, he spent the next decade advocating a compromise between Britain and the colonies. When the plan for reconciliation outlined in his American Crisis (1774) failed to garner support, he withdrew from office and retired to England, returning to Philadelphia in 1779. His sons John, Andrew, and James Allen and son-in-law John Penn were APS members. (PI, ANB, DNB, DAB)