ALLEN, JOHN, was born 8, 3, 1694, and died 9, 16, 1771. He married, in 1719, Amy Cox, and settled in Londongrove. He brought a certificate from Friends in Ireland to Newark Meeting, 2, 3, 1714. His wife died 9, 13, 1778.
Their children were: 1. John, b. 2, 8, 1720; d. 10, 1, 1754; m. 9, 12, 1740, Phebe Scarlet, and lived in Londongrove. 2. Rebecca, b. 8, 8, 1722; m. Alexander Mode and William Chandler. 3. Emey (Amy), b. 6, 8, 1725; m. Philip Ward. 4. Elizabeth, 2, 29, 1728; m. Simon Dixson. 5. William, b. 8, 3, 1730, m. 5, 24, 1758, Sarah Greave. 6. Joseph, b. 5, 12, 1733, m. 11, 13, 1755, Deborah Hill. 7. Mary, b. 11, 1, 1738; m. Moses Frazier. 8. Phebe, b. 2, 9, 1739; d. 10, 19, 1787. 9. Benjamin, b. 8, 4, 1742; m. 12, 20, 1764, Hannah Greenfield.
One Morrell Allen married Alice Scarlet, a sister of Phebe, wife of John Allen, and lived in Londongrove. There were also Allens in West Nottingham.
ALTEMUS, LEONARD, whose father was a Frenchman and mother a German, was born in May, 1763, and died Aug. 25, 1826. He married Sarah Walker (born February, 1764); died 1798), daughter of Jerman Walker, of Tredyffrin, Chester Co. They had children, -- Lydia, Jerman, Isaac, Hannah, Eliza, Rhoda, and Abijah. Isaac, born 9, 18, 1789, married first, Hannah Swayne, and second, Sarah Ann Pusey, and lived in Londongrove. His children were Francis S., Marshall, Anna Maria, Almira, Hiram, and Hannah Emma.
ANDERSON, CAPT. PATRICK, was born July 24, 1719, on a farm on the Pickering Creek, in what is now Schuylkill township, and was the first child of European parents born within the limits of the old township of Charlestown. He was the son of James Anderson, a Scotch emigrant, and Elizabeth Jerman, daughter of Thomas Jerman, a noted Quaker preacher and thrifty miller, who settled very early in the Chester Valley. When a babe his mother occasionally left him with the friendly Indian women to be nursed, while she visited her parents across the mountain. In his youth he was sent to Philadelphia to be educated, and afterwards he taught school in his father's house. He obtained the home property from his father, and on it at an early age, built thje saw-mill which now belongs to his great-grandson, Dr. M. J. Pennypacker. He was thrifty and enerprising, and among other possessions owned a number of slaves. There is a letter extant, written by William Moore, of Moore Hall, Nov, 5, 1755, during the progress of the French and Indian War, to William Allen, chief justice of the province, recommending him for a captaincy.
In the Revolutionary struggle, he bore an active part. In 1774 he was elected one of the Chester County committee of which Anthony Wayne was chairman. In March, 1776, he was appointed by the Assembly senior captain of the Pennsylvania battalion of musketry, and though then considerably advanced in years, he accepted the position and recruited a company. This battalion, under the command of Colonel Samuel J. Atlee, was placed on the right of the American army at the battle of Long Island, fought with a great gallantry, capturing from the British and holding a height, and did much to save the army from destruction. Lieutenant-Colonel Caleb Parry, a friend and neighbor of Anderson, was killed by his side, and according to tradition, the sight very much enraged him. His company lost heavily in killed, wounded, and missing. Atlee having been captured, the command of the battalion, which had been very much shattered, devolved upon him, and a letter from him to Benjamin Franklin, dated September 22, 1776, detailing its condition, is printed in the Archives. At the capture of Fort Washington, all, or nearly all, of his company were taken prisoners, and on the 9th of January, 1777, he made application for a lieutenant-colonelcy, but does not appear to have succeeded. The battalion was reorganized and consolidated with other troops, and he was put in command of the first company of the State regiment of foot, and later of a company in the Thirteenth Pennsylvania Regiment in the Continental Line.
He was in the service when, in the fall of 1777, the British passed through Chester County in the campaign for the possession of Philadelphia. At his house they committed great depradations, destroying and taking his furniture and other property, including 11 cows, 7 beef-cattle, 40 sheep, 10 swine, and 121 fowls, to the value of £303 3s 6 d. A mirror, which had been apart of the marriage outfit of his dead wife, escaped, and now belongs to Samuel Pennypacker, Esq.
He was elected a member of the Assembly in October 1778, and after a long contest, obtained his seat. He was re-elected in 1779, 1780, and 1781, and as a member of that body voted against all efforts to abolish slavery in Pennsylvania. In April, 1779, he wrote to the Council of Safety in regard to irregularities in the election of the militia officers in Chester County, as conducted by Col. Levi Granow, and that election was annulled. In 1781 he was appointed by the Assembly one of the board of commissioners to provide for the navigation of the river Schuylkill.
He married, at Christ Church, Philadelphia, December 22, 1748, Hannah Martin and had two children, --Rebecca and Harriet. He married again, Elizabeth Morris, grand-daughter of John Bartholomew, and cousin of Cols. Edward and Benjamin Bartholomew, by whom he had three children, --Isaac, James, and Elizabeth. He married the third time, Ann Beaton, sister of Col. John Beaton, and had by her seven children. He died in 1793, and is buried in the yard of the Valley Episcopal Church.
ISAAC ANDERSON, son of Patrick, was born November 23, 1760. When a boy he was a great favorite with the Indians, who still frequented the valley of the Pickering, and often accompanied them on their fishing and huntingexcursions. Though a mere boy when the Revolutionary War commenced, he was not of the temper to rest in quiet amid the exciting scenes occurring around him. He was one of the squad who visited William Moore and searched for arms, as is detailed in the sketch of that staunch Loyalist. In the fall of 1777, during the British invasion, he led a company of militia to the assistance of Washington, and while the army lay at Valley Forge, he carried dispatches to and from the Congress at York. He was a Jeffersonian Democrat, and after the close of the war was appointed a justice of the Peace. In 1802 he was elected to the Assembly. From 1803 to 1807 he sat in Congress. In the Monroe Campaign, in 1816, he was a Presidential elector, and he was also at one time prominently suggested for the Governorship. He was one of the first Methodists in Pennsylvania, he and his wife having been converted in 1780, and he frequently preached for that sect. A sketch of Charlestown township written by him was published in Potter's American Monthly for January, 1873. He married Mary Lane, a great-great-granddaughter of Samuel Richardson, one of the earliest Philadelphia judges and provincial councilors, and also a great-great-grandddaughter of Barbara Aubrey, a first cousin of that William Aubrey who married Letitia Penn, and whose ancestor, Sir Reginald Aubrey, was one of the Norman conquerors of Wales in the twelfth century. They had eleven children. He was six feet four inches high, and a man of great muscular strength, and of perhaps excessive firmness of character. He died October 27, 1838.
DR. JAMES ANDERSON was born in Charlestown, now
Schuylkill township, April 11, 1782. He was the eldest son of Hon. Isaac
Anderson, a gentlman of extensive reading and high position. His early
life was spent chiefly at home, and his education was such as the country
at that time afforded to its youth. In 1803, he attended a Latin school in
Norristown, and in the following year commenced the study of medicine
under Dr. Roger Davis, with whom he remained for some time. He attended
lectures in the University of Pennsylvania for two years, and received his
degree in 1806. He first located in Radnor township, Delaware Co. In 1840
he married Mary, daughter of William Thomas, of Lower Merion, Montgomery
Co., and there purchased a farm, upon which he settled, and where he
resided until his death. He was actively and extensively engaged in the
practice of his profession for upwards of thirty years. He was twice
married, his second wife being Mary, the daughter of Joseph Wilson, Esq.
He educated three of his sons to the profession of medicine. Dr. Anderson
was possessed of great energy, decision, and firmness of character,
inflexible in his principles and the maintenance of that which he believed
to be right. He died June 1, 1858, in the seventy-seventh year of his age.