Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 01.djvu/316

 Bristol, where he carried on his ministry with ever-increasing acceptance. From thence he went to Yeovil, in his native county of Somerset. He there died in October 1677, aged 63. His ‘character’ by Calamy and Palmer is thus modestly summarised: ‘He was a man of good learning and piety, particularly eminent for modesty and meekness, A true, patient labourer in the Gospel, and a most happy comforter of many dejected souls and wounded spirits by a wise application of Gospel cordials. When he set himself to an immediate preparation for death, he had some regret (as it is said Archbishop Usher had) that he had not better improved his time and talents.’ His writings reflect and confirm this estimate. He published two books on the ‘Millennium,’ and after his death there were printed ‘Six Discourses on the Unsearchable Riches of Christ,’ &c., now extremely rare.



ALLEN. [See also, , , , .]

ALLEN, ALEXANDER (1814–1842), son of John Allen, author of ‘Modern Judaism,’ was born at Hackney, 23 Sept. 1814, and died 6 Nov. 1842. He was educated at his father’s school and the university of London, where he distinguished himself by his classical proficiency. On his father's death he carried on the school, which was called the Madras House Grammar School, at Hackney. He obtained, in 1840, the degree of doctor of philosophy from the university of Leipzig. His kind disposition and natural sagacity made him an excellent instructor. In the dedication of his ‘Analysis of Latin Verbs’ to Thomas Hewitt Key, he confesses that many of his philological principles were derived from that gentleman. He also acknowledges, in his ‘Essay on Teaching Greek,’ his obligations to his friend Mr. W. Wittich, teacher of German in University College, London. In the last years of his life he paid considerable attention to Anglo-Saxon, Swedish, Danish, Icelandic, and German, with a view to a comprehensive work on the history and structure of the English language. He left many notes upon this subject, but not in a state fit for publication.

His chief works, of which, considering the early age at which he died, the number is extraordinary, are an ‘Etymological Analysis of Latin Verbs,’ Lond. 1836, 8vo; ‘Constructive Greek Exercises, for teaching Greek from the beginning by Writing,’ 1839; ‘Eclogæ Ciceronianæ,’ 1839; ‘A New Greek Delectus, translated from the German of Dr. Kühner,’ 1839; ‘A New Latin Delectus,’ 1840; ‘A New English Grammar,’ 1841; an Essay on teaching Greek, published in vol. i. of the ‘Papers of the Central Society of Education;’ an Essay on writing Latin and Greek Exercises, in No. 18 of ‘Journal of Education,’ and one on Parsing, in No. 20. These essays show Dr. Allen's skill as a teacher. He also contributed articles to the ‘Penny Cyclopædia’ and Smith's ‘Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities’ and ‘Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.’



ALLEN, ANTHONY (d. 1754), lawyer and antiquary, was born at Great Hadham, Hertfordshire, towards the close of the seventeenth century. He was educated at Eton, and went thence to King's College, Cambridge, where he took his B.A. degree in 1707, and his M.A. in 1711. He was afterwards called to the bar, and by the influence of Arthur Onslow, speaker of the House of Commons, became a master in chancery. A few years later he was made an alderman of the corporation of Guildford, and a county magistrate. He died 11 April 1754, and was buried in the Temple church. He formed a biographical account, in five folio volumes, of the members of Eton College, which, by his will dated 1753, he ordered to be deposited in the libraries of Eton College and King’s College, Cambridge, and a third copy he bequeathed to Mr. Onslow. He also collected materials for an English dictionary of obsolete words, and of those which have either changed their meaning or assumed a proverbial usage.



ALLEN, BENNET (fl. 1761–1782), miscellaneous writer, was educated at Wadham College, Oxford, where he took the degree of B.A. 16 Nov. 1757, and that of M.A. 12 July 1760 (Catalogue of Oxford Graduates, p. 9). He subsequently appears to have taken holy orders, for which his writings prove him to have been singularly unfitted, and to have settled in London. Patronised by leaders of society of doubtful reputation, he apparently obtained a livelihood for some time by pandering in the press to the fashionable vices of the age. His first work, a ‘Poem inscribed to his Britannic Majesty,’ published in 1761, shortly after the