Thomas Allen (1681–1755) was an English clergyman and divine.

Life

Allen was born in Oxford 25 December 1681, and educated at

New College School New College School (officially St Mary's College School) is an independent preparatory school for boys aged 4 to 13 in Oxford. It was founded in 1379 by William of Wykeham to provide for the education of 16 choristers for the chapel of New C ...

and Wadham College, Oxford, where he took the degree of B.A. on 2 July 1705. He was for a time a clerk in

Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincoln ...

; then became a schoolmaster; was ordained in 1705; in February 1706 he became vicar of Irchester, Northamptonshire, which he resigned in 1715 to take the less valuable rectory of Kettering. He married Dorothy Plowman, who, disliking the exchange of livings, murdered her infant son and cut her own throat, but recovered, and was tried and acquitted at the next assizes. Allen died, while reading prayers, 31 May 1755.

Works

He was the author of various religious writings. ‘The Practice of a Holy Life, or the Christian's Daily Exercise,’ 1716, a collection of prayers and meditations, is his chief work. He is also the author of an ‘Apology for the Church of England, and Vindication of her Learned Clergy’ (1725), in reply to

Thomas Woolston Thomas Woolston (baptised November 166827 January 1733) was an English theologian. Although he was often classed as a deist, his biographer William H. Trapnell regards him as an Anglican who held unorthodox theological views. Biography Thomas ...

's pamphlet on ‘the hireling priests of this age,’ and of a sermon preached at

Newgate Prison Newgate Prison was a prison at the corner of Newgate Street and Old Bailey Street just inside the City of London, England, originally at the site of Newgate, a gate in the Roman London Wall. Built in the 12th century and demolished in 1904, t ...

in 1744 to twenty-one condemned criminals, and published at the request of the congregation; of the ‘Way to grow Rich’ (about 1753); a sermon with a preface and essay, recommending the payment of tithes, and reprobating the enclosure of commons; and of ‘The New Birth; or Christian Regeneration, being the marrow of Christian Theology, expressed in blank or Miltonian verse,’ &c. A preface states that the design of these verses is ‘no less than regenerating the whole British nation,’ and expresses the opinion that all who have

John Milton John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674) was an English poet and intellectual. His 1667 epic poem '' Paradise Lost'', written in blank verse and including over ten chapters, was written in a time of immense religious flux and political ...

's poem '' Paradise Regained'' ‘would do well to furnish themselves with this little piece, which compleats, or rather realizeth, his design.’ According to an advertisement appended to his ‘Apology for the Church of England,’ Allen had already published in 1725, or was just about to publish, a Greek grammar, entitled ‘English and Greek Institutions for the more easy attaining the Knowledge of the Greek Language;’ a ‘Greek and English Dictionary;’ ‘Practical Christianity; or the whole Will of God and Duty of Man methodically laid down according to both the Testaments or Covenants;’ and ‘An Explanation of the Seven Words of the Lord Jesus to the Seven Churches of Asia,’ which the writer describes as a ‘practical piece.’ But none of these books appear to have survived.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Allen, Thomas 1681 births 1755 deaths People from Oxford 18th-century English Anglican priests Schoolteachers from Oxfordshire People educated at New College School Alumni of Wadham College, Oxford English religious writers 18th-century English non-fiction writers 18th-century English male writers 18th-century English educators People from Irchester People from Kettering