Reverend Thomas Allen (January 17, 1743 in

Northampton, Massachusetts The city of Northampton is the county seat of Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of Northampton (including its outer villages, Florence and Leeds) was 29,571. Northampton is known as an a ...

– April 18, 1810 in

Pittsfield, Massachusetts Pittsfield is the largest city and the county seat of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the principal city of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all ...

), known as The Fighting Parson, was "chaplain to three Berkshire Regiments during the Revolution and was at Ticonderoga and at the Battle of Bennington where he led a group of soldiers from Pittsfield" described as "a political liberal and a religious conservative."

Biography

Allen graduated from

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher ...

in 1762 and then studied theology under Reverend John Hooker. On April 18, 1764, he was ordained the first pastor of the First Congregational Church of

. Still in existence today, he served as pastor for 46 years. His grandson, also named Thomas Allen, was a Congressman from Missouri. Allen “brought in” a relative to publish ''The Pittsfield Sun'' and contributed many editorials.

The Fighting Parson

Because of his 'pro-Jeffersonian speeches made at church on Sundays", Allen was charged with "treason, rebellion and sedition" but ultimately the charges were dropped. There is more than one version of how he earned the nickname "The Fighting Parson." One involves his involvement in combat at the

Battle of Bennington The Battle of Bennington was a battle of the American Revolutionary War, part of the Saratoga campaign, that took place on August 16, 1777, on a farm owned by John Green in Walloomsac, New York, about from its namesake, Bennington, Vermont. A ...

and the other because, under the altar of his church, he kept a musket.

References

External links

* Birdsall, Richard D. “The Reverend Thomas Allen: Jeffersonian Calvinist.” The New England Quarterly, vol. 30, no. 2, 1957, pp. 147–165. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/362310. Accessed 14 July 2021. {{DEFAULTSORT:Allen, Thomas Harvard College alumni People from Pittsfield, Massachusetts 1743 births 1810 deaths Massachusetts colonial-era clergy American Revolution chaplains 18th-century American journalists