Ira Allen | |
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 Engraving of Ira Allen, c. 1810 | |
| Born | (1751-04-21)April 21, 1751 |
| Died | January 7, 1814(1814-01-07) (aged 62) |
| Occupations | Surveyor, politician, military officer |
| Relatives | Ethan Allen (brother) |
Ira Allen (21 April [O.S. 10 April] 1751 – January 7, 1814) was an American revolutionary leader, founder of Vermont, and one of theGreen Mountain Boys during the American colonial period. He was the younger brother ofEthan Allen.
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Ira Allen was born inCornwall in theConnecticut Colony (in present-dayLitchfield County,Connecticut), the youngest of eight children born to Joseph and Mary Baker Allen.[1][2] In 1771, Allen went to Vermont (then part of the British colonialProvince of New York) with his brother Ethan as a surveyor for theOnion River Land Company.[3] The four Allen brothers established the company in 1772 (dissolved 1785)[4] to purchase lands under theNew Hampshire Grants. Ira Allen had an almost central role in the dispute with the Province of New York over conflicting land claims in the region[5] such as by gifting land to men who had committed acts for New Hampshire,[6] and by confiscating loyalist property to finance government.[7]
During theAmerican Revolutionary War, Allen was a member of theVermont Legislature in 1776–1777 and a leading figure in the declaration of theVermont Republic in 1777, which was originally intended to be independent of both the British colonies and the newly-foundedUnited States.[8] Late in the war, he and his brother Ethan, along withThomas Chittenden and others, were involved in theHaldimand Affair by their discussions withFrederick Haldimand, the British Governor of theProvince of Quebec, about the possibility of reinstating Vermont as a British province.[9][10][11]
An alternate explanation is that the Allen brothers were not actually interested in returning Vermont to the British but merely used the Haldimand negotiations to stave off a British invasion of Vermont fromCanada and to prod theContinental Congress into recognizing Vermont as separate from New York and New Hampshire and admitting it to the United States.[12][13] Vermont wasgranted statehood in 1791.[14][15]
Allen designed theGreat Seal of Vermont.[16] In 1778, Allen drew the seal and Reuben Dean, a local silversmith, made it.[17][18] The two men were each paid tenshillings for their work.[19]
In 1780, Allen presented to the state legislature amemorial for the establishment of theUniversity of Vermont.[20][21] He contributed money and a fifty-acre (20 ha) site atBurlington.[22] He was called the "Father of the University of Vermont” and after his death he has been referred to as the "Metternich of Vermont" (though his actions predate those of Metternich himself).[23] Ira Allen pledged 4,000 Britishpounds sterling to the University of Vermont, but never donated the money.[24] In response, the Trustees of the University of Vermont secured awrit of attachment on his title to the town ofPlainfield to try to extract payment of his original 4,000-pound pledge.[25]
Allen was Vermont's firstTreasurer and held office from 1778 to 1786, when he was succeeded bySamuel Mattocks.[26] He married Jerusha Enos (daughter of Roger Enos and Jerusha Hayden) in 1789.[27] Members of the Allen and Enos families were the original proprietors ofIrasburg, Vermont, which was named after Ira Allen.[28] Allen subsequently acquired all the proprietary rights to Irasburg and deeded the town to Jerusha Enos as a wedding gift.[29]
On October 25, 1790, Ira Allen was commissionedMajor General of the Third Division of the Vermont State Militia by GovernorThomas Chittenden.[30] He went toFrance in 1795 and sought French army intervention for seizing Canada in order to create an independent republic called United Columbia.[31] He bought 20,000 muskets and 24 cannons but was captured at sea, taken toEngland, placed on trial, and charged with furnishing arms forIrish rebels.[32] He was acquitted after a lawsuit which lasted eight years,[33] and which saw a first of an Admiralty judge being summoned before King's Bench.[34]
Allen died in 1814 inPhiladelphia, where he had gone to escape imprisonment for debt, caused by his long absence from Vermont.[35] He was originally buried in Philadelphia's Arch Street Presbyterian Cemetery, but his remains were lost when that cemetery was destroyed.[36] There is acenotaph in his memory at Greenmount Cemetery inBurlington, Vermont, and a memorial cenotaph at Wetherill’s (Free Quaker) Cemetery inAudubon, Pennsylvania.[37][38] TheIra Allen Chapel on the University of Vermont's main campus was also named after him.[39][40]
The obverse of the 1927Vermont Sesquicentennial half dollar, designed byCharles Keck, depicts Allen above the words "Founder of Vermont".
Allen published several books, including:
Ira Allen was born in Cornwall, in the Connecticut Colony (now Litchfield County), the youngest of eight children of Joseph Allen and Mary Baker Allen.
Born at Cornwall, Connecticut, the youngest child of Joseph Allen and Mary (Baker) Allen.
In 1771 Ira Allen accompanied his brother Ethan to the New Hampshire Grants, then under New York jurisdiction, where he worked as a surveyor for the Onion River Land Company.
Ira Allen appears as a member of the Vermont Legislature in the sessions of 1776 and 1777.
Ira Allen designed the Great Seal of Vermont. Reuben Dean carved the image. Vermont adopted the seal in 1779.
"What came of his efforts was … a creation Allen brought to Reuben Dean, a silversmith in Windsor…"
"… Reuben Dean … who in 1778 executed Ira Allen's design for the first seal of the State of Vermont."
Ira Allen, one of the founders of Vermont, proposed the establishment of the University in 1780 and donated a fifty-acre parcel in Burlington as its campus.
Ira Allen has been called the "Father of the University of Vermont" and after his death referred to as the "Metternich of Vermont."
Allen pledged four thousand pounds toward the new university, a sum which was never realized.
"Eight years after the grant, or in 1789, he deeded Irasburgh to Jerusha Enos, a daughter of General Enos, as a marriage settlement … and she became his wife."
The township of Irasburgh was granted to Ira Allen and his associates by the General Assembly of Vermont on February 23, 1781. From its principal proprietor, Ira Allen, it was called Irasburgh in the grant.
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help){{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)Allen spent his last years in Philadelphia, where he had gone to avoid arrest for debt resulting from his long absence from Vermont. He died there in 1814.
He was buried in the Arch Street Presbyterian churchyard, where his remains were lost when the cemetery was destroyed.
"Ira Allen Cenotaph Wetherills Cemetery (Free Quaker Cemetery)… 2800 Audubon Rd. Audubon, PA 19403."
"Allen, Ira".The Biographical Dictionary of America. Vol. 1. 1906. pp. 85–86.| International | |
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