Richard Allen (abolitionist)
Richard Allen | |
|---|---|
 Allen pictured in his biography | |
| Born | 8 January 1803 Harolds Cross, Dublin, Ireland |
| Died | 19 January 1886 (aged 83) Monkstown, Dublin |
| Occupation | Draper |
| Spouses |
|
Richard Allen (8 January 1803 – 19 January 1886) was an Irish draper, philanthropist, abolitionist, and temperance campaigner.[1] Allen raised £20,000 to help the Irish famine by writing letters to America.[2]
Early life
Allen was born on 8 January 1803 in Harold's Cross, Dublin to Edward Allen, a draper, and Ellen Allen (née Burton).[a][1] One of fifteen siblings, Allen was raised in a Quaker family.[1][3]Allen was educated at home by a tutor.[1]
Career
In 1820, Allen entered his father's firm.[1] Allen later founded his own firm in 1830, which would later fail around 1844 due to his preoccupation with philanthropist causes.[1] In 1837, Allen was one of three founding members, with James Haughton and Richard Davis Webb, of the Hibernian Antislavery Association. This was not the first antislavery association but it was acknowledged to be the most active.[4] Allen served as the secretary of this association.
Allen founded the Irish Temperance and Literary Gazette and used this publication to forward his ideas and those of the Anti-Slavery Association.
Opposition to slavery in Ireland had a long pedigree. As was the case in Britain, its most prominent Irish supporters were Protestant, notably Methodists, Quakers and Unitarians, and meetings were generally held in Nonconformist churches.[6] One of the greatest contributions to the anti-slavery debate was made by the flamboyant and controversial Irish nationalist, Daniel O’Connell, champion of Catholic Emancipation.
Richard Allen's parents home is proposed to be a protected building, because Allen was brought up there and also because it became a Plymouth Brethren Orphanage around 1860.[7]
In 1840 his portrait was included with other notables in a painting of the 1840 World Anti-Slavery Convention in London.
In 1846, Allen attended another World convention in London. This time the subject was temperance and Allen was one of the speakers. Allen noted that he had been visiting Dublin's Bridewell prison and considered that parts were becoming empty because of the increase intemperance.[8]
Famine was rife in Ireland and in 1847 Allen wrote letters to America to explain the people's plight. William Lloyd Garrison acknowledged the effect that Allen's letters to America had attracted. He estimated that £20,000 pounds had been raised.[2]
Personal life
Allen married first married Anne Allen (née Webb; died 1868) in 1826, and Mary Ann Allen (née Savage) in 1873.[1]
On 19 January 1886, Allen died at his home in Monkstown, Dublin.[1]
Notes
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Andrews, Helen (October 2009). "Allen, Richard". In McGuire, J. I.; Quinn, James (eds.). Dictionary of Irish Biography. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 20 July 2026.
- 1 2 Society of Friends. Central Relief Committee in Ireland, Dublin (1847). Distress in Ireland: extracts from correspondence.
- ↑ Wigham, Hannah Maria Peile (1886). A Christian philanthropist of Dublin : a memoir of Richard Allen (1886). Retrieved 1 January 2010.
- ↑ Hinks, Peter P.; John R. McKivigan; R. Owen Williams (2007). Encyclopedia of antislavery and abolition p373. p. 796.
- ↑ [http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait.php?search=ap&npgno=599&eDate=&lDate= Archived 3 April 2019 at the Wayback Machine The Anti-Slavery Society Convention, 1840, Benjamin Robert Haydon, 1841, National Portrait Gallery, London, NPG599, Given by British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society in 1880
- ↑ "History Today, The Liberator: Daniel O'Connell and Anti-Slavery". Archived from the original on 8 February 2010. Retrieved 4 March 2010.
- ↑ Protected structures application Archived 21 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Dublin
- ↑ The proceedings of the World's Temperance Convention p48-49. Richard Barrett Jun. 1846. Archived from the original on 24 May 2024. Retrieved 1 January 2010.