Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 01.djvu/347

Allingham . Of Allin himself Pepys's estimate was not less variable than that which he has given of others. On one occasion he thinks him ‘a good man, but one that professes he loves to get and to save;’ and on another he has been told ‘how Sir Thomas Allin, whom I took for a man of known courage and service on the king's side, was tried for his life in Prince Rupert's fleet, in the late times, for cowardice and condemned to be hanged.’ Such a story of the man whom Rupert afterwards singled out for his especial favour, carries with it its own refutation.

[Gillingwater's Historical Account of the Ancient Town of Lowestoft, p. 111; Calendars of State Papers (Domestic), 1660–66; Pepys's Diary, passim; Brit. Mus. Add. MSS. 19098, pp, 268 b, 277.]  ALLINGHAM, JOHN TILL (fl. 1799–1810), dramatist, was the son of a wine merchant in the city of London (Biographia Dramatica, 1812). He was brought up to the profession of the law, but is chiefly known as a successful and prolific dramatist. His afterpiece, ‘Fortune's Frolic,’ first produced at Covent Garden in 1799, long enjoyed great popularity, the leading character, Robin Roughhead, having been represented by very many admired comedians. His second play, ‘'Tis all a Farce,’ was produced at the Haymarket in 1800. Others of his works are the ‘Marriage Promise,’ a comedy with music by Michael Kelly, produced at Drury Lane 1803; ‘Mrs. Wiggins,’ a farce in two acts, produced at the Haymarket in 1803; ‘Hearts of Oak,’ a comedy, produced at Drury Lane in 1803; the ‘Weathercock,’ a farce, produced at Drury Lane in 1805; the ‘Romantic Lover,’ a comedy, produced at Covent Garden in 1806, and ‘damned,’ writes Genest. The following plays have also been attributed to Allingham: ‘Who wins? or the Widow's Choice,’ a musical farce, produced at Covent Garden in 1808; ‘Independence, or the Trustee,’ produced at Covent Garden in 1809; ‘Transformation, or Love and Law,’ a musical farce, produced by the Drury Lane company at the Lyceum Theatre in 1810. Much of the success obtained by Allingham's plays was due to the ability and popularity of Charles Mathews. Harlow painted a portrait of the actor as Mr. Wiggins in the farce of ‘Mrs. Wiggins.’ In his ‘Life of John Kemble’ (1825), Boaden writes of Allingham that ‘with an agreeable person and a jovial temper, he became dreadfully embarrassed in his circumstances and died yet young, the victim of disease brought on by intemperance.’ He is said to have devoted his leisure to the study of mechanics, and to have invented a flying machine, by means of which he succeeded in ‘fluttering about his rooms like a dabchick.’  He sought to rise in the air with the help of balloons filled with steam, but his experiments proved abortive. He further distinguished himself by fighting a duel in a turnip field with one of his critics.

[Genest's History of the Stage, 1832.]  ALLISON, THOMAS (fl. 1697), was an Arctic voyager, of whose personal history we have no record beyond what is to be gleaned from a journal of one of his voyages afterwards published. While in command of the ship Ann, of Yarmouth, of 260 tons, in the service of the Russia Company, he left Archangel in the White Sea on his homeward voyage, on 8 Oct. 1697. After beating about for seventeen days off the coasts of Russia and Lapland, he found himself, on the 23rd of the same month, twenty-one miles N.E. from the Nord Kyn, the northernmost point of Europe and Norway, in lat. 71° 6′ N. Two days later, during a gale in thick weather, he sighted the North Cape, and ran for shelter into the ‘Fuel,’ or wide opening between the Nord Kyn and the North Cape. A perusal of his journal in the light of the best modern charts and sailing directions for these parts serves to show that he finally anchored in a small but secure harbour on the west side of what is now known as Porsanger Fjord, probably Saernoes Pollen, where he, by stress of weather, was forced to winter. It was during this period, under most difficult and trying circumstances, that his once famous journal was written, which is a faithful record of the daily experiences and trials of himself and his hardy crew. Such was the intense cold on 1 Feb. 1698, that, in order to write his journal, ‘a boy had to thaw the ink as oft as he had occasion to dip his pen.’ The writer appears to have been not only a thorough seaman, well experienced in northern navigation, but also one well able to command the respect of his men by his unswerving adherence to daily work and discipline during a period of nearly five months' apparently enforced idleness. After enduring all the hardships of a severe Arctic winter with the loss of only one man, the Ann left the Fuel 26 March 1698, and on 24 April following finally reached Gravesend. This narrative was published in the following year under the title of ‘An Account of a Voyage from Archangel in Russia, in the year 1697, of the Ship and Company wintering near the North Cape, in the Latitude of 71. Their manner of Living and what they suffered by the Extreame Cold. 