Wigram Allen family papers, ca. 1821-1972

MLMSS 9596

fonds

ca. 1821-1972

Textual Records, Graphic Materials, Ephemera, Photographs

1213838

0.16 metres of textual material (1 box)

The Wigram Allen family were a prominent Sydney family. George Allen (1800-1877) was born in England and arrived in Sydney in 1816. He was articled to Frederick Garling in 1817 and was admitted as a solicitor in July 1822. He was the first solicitor to receive his legal training in the Colony and the founder of the oldest legal firm in Sydney. George Allen married Jane Bowden in 1823 and she bore him 14 children, of whom 5 sons and 5 daughters survived infancy. His son George Wigram became a partner and successor in his legal firm and also continued many of his public activities such as becoming minister of justice and public instruction in Parkes’s administration in 1873-75, and afterwards Speaker of the Legislative Assembly.
George and Jane Allen’s daughter Jane Allen (1827-1915) married Reverend William Boyce (1804-1889), a Wesleyan minister. In 1846 Boyce went to Sydney as general superintendent for establishing the ‘missions in Australia, Van Diemen’s Land, the Friendly islands and Feejee’ as an Australian Conference. He presided at the Wesleyan District Meeting in York Street Chapel on 30 July 1846; among those present who recorded that ‘the highest expectations were as the result of his presence’, were John McKenny, William Schofield and Daniel Draper. His conciliatory guidance overcame much of the resentment felt by Wesleyan missionaries toward their remote and paternalistic British Conference. In 1847 he edited the weekly Gleaner. An omnivorous reader with wide culture, he sought ‘to open doors of learning by the circulation of good literature’. As a theologian he defined the position of Methodism as a Church, and as an administrator acquired building sites and recruited new ministers to serve Wesleyan centres in the colonies.

Reference:
Australian Dictionary of Biography: www.adb.anu.edu.au (accessed 08/10/2014)

Wigram Allen family papers, ca. 1821-1972, including letters, legal and financial papers, photographs, postcards and invitations relating to the Wigram Allen family. Significant correspondence includes: letters from George Allen ca. 1821 prior to marriage with Jane Bowden; letter from Jane Allen to her mother; 1840, letter to George Allen from Reverend William Boyce in London, 1856; letter from John Adams; Pitcairn Island to Reverend Boyce, 1851; letter to Sir George Wigram Allen concerning a gift from the King of Tonga, 1974; papers and letters relating to the Allen Family vault in Rookwood Cemetery, ca. 1946, and papers relating to the Hamburger family.