ALLEN, Capt. Joseph: 1742 - 1815
Tile ordered and paid for by Dorothea Allen and J.J. Watson,* Adolphustown, Ontario, March 1889
Joseph Allen, one of the original Loyalist settlers in Adolphustown, was born in New Jersey in 1742, and first settled in Dover Township, Monmouth, New Jersey. Prior to the American Revolution, he owned extensive property there, including mills and farms. He supplied flour, beef and other foods to British troops in New York during the war and was appointed an officer in the British army. Taken prisoner in 1780, he then escaped, and joined first, a marine regiment, and later Thomas Ward’s regiment in New Jersey. He raised a company of Loyalists and commanded them at Bergen Neck from 1781-1783. In 1783, he joined with other Loyalists planning to emigrate to Canada. He arrived in Sorel, Quebec in 1783 and reached Adolphustown with Major Peter Van Alstine in 1784.
Joseph Allen married Gertrude Bound (1740–1824) and they had six children: Elizabeth (1768-1812); John (1770-1848) a bachelor; Jonathan (1772-1846) who married Nancy Ann Dougall and had six children; Ursula (1775-1861) who first married Alex Van Alstine in 1798 and had son Peter and then married David McWhirter in 1806 and had two sons; Rachel (1777-1838) who first married Samuel Henderson and then married James Watson and had one son John Joseph.*; and lastly James (1785-1823),their third son and youngest child.
Joseph Allen eventually owned 800 acres in Adolphustown and 3500 acres in Prince Edward County and built several mills.(1) His will, made on June 29, 1815, can be seen in the Rose Museum, Prince Edward County.
Joseph, a Quaker, died on October 21, 1815 at the age of seventy-three and was buried near his Waupoos mill in Prince Edward County.
It is interesting to note that the obituary of Joseph’s grandson, Parker Allen (son of Jonathan), as printed in the Napanee Beaver pays lengthy tribute to Joseph Allen, the original Adolphustown settler.
“His grandfather, Joseph Allen, was a Quaker and large mill owner in New Jersey when the American Revolution began. Like most of his sect he took no part in the war at the commencement, but had supplied the British with considerable flour and provisions as a matter of business. The Americans learning of this went one day to his mill and storehouse and plundered them. This so greatly incensed him that he went at once to New York and obtained a captain’s commission and returned home and got up a company of volunteers who did valiant service on the British side during the war. Of course all his property was confiscated, and at the end of the revolution he had to join the exodus with other Loyalist refugees. He came to Adolphustown with his wife, two sons, Jonathon and John, then boys of 14 and 12 years of age and three daughters.”(2)
* Rachel and James Watson’s son, J.J. Watson (1816-1891), sponsored this tile to his grandfather. He also donated the land on which St. Alban’s was built.
1. Larry Turner, Voyage of a Different Kind (Belleville: Mika, 1984), p. 148.
2. Obituaries, www.sfredheritage.on.ca/deathsobits, accessed April 2011.