Background
Andrew Allen was born in June 1740 at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. He was the second son of William Allen, Chief Justice of Pennsylvania, and Margaret Hamilton Allen.
Andrew Allen was born in June 1740 at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. He was the second son of William Allen, Chief Justice of Pennsylvania, and Margaret Hamilton Allen.
Allen graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1759, and studied law under Benjamin Chew and later in England (1761).
Allen was admitted to practise before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court April 20, 1765.
On November 4, 1769 he became attorney-general of the province, thus confirming his political and social position in Philadelphia. Recorder of Philadelphia in 1774 and elected to the Committee of Safety June 30, 1775, Allen was well fitted to serve his province. In the elections to the Assembly of May 1776, he tied for second place among the four members chosen by the city.
Elected to Congress on November 3, he resigned in December and sought Lord Howe's protection at Trenton. It has been assumed that this act was due to Washington's defeat at New York, and fear that the American cause was lost. In "A Letter from Philadelphia" Allen had already (1775), however, been termed "A Sworn Advocate for George III, " and it is probable that his loyalty was due to conscientious scruples and family traditions.
His preference for the British, his reported selection by Howe as lieutenant-governor of Pennsylvania, and his return to Philadelphia with that general on December 26, 1777 destroyed Allen's standing among the Whigs; and when the tide favored the Americans he was attainted (March 1778), and his property confiscated by the state.
With the close of the Revolution Loyalists were more kindly regarded, and in 1792 Allen was pardoned and revisited Philadelphia. Under the Jay Treaty of 1794 he attempted to recover money paid the state by his early debtors. Failing in this, Allen returned to England to live the remainder of his life with one of his seven children. He received a yearly pension of £400 from the Crown, dying in London March 7, 1825, an English gentleman faithful to the tenets and teachings of his fathers.
Allen became a Loyalist after the Declaration of Independence and the Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776.
On April 21, 1768, Allen married Sarah Francis, the eldest daughter of William Coxe of New Jersey.