William Allen (1762–1788)
William Allen was found guilty at Ormskirk Quarter Sessions on 11 April 1785 of robbery with violence. Sentenced to seven years transportation, he was sent to the Censor hulk on the Thames River, London, before being placed on the Alexander which arrived in Sydney in January 1788 as part of the First Fleet.
Allen does not appear in any records in the colony and there is no record of his death on the voyage. He may have been the convict named 'Allen' who, with Alexander McDonald, was reported on 8 March 1788, by Surgeon Arthur Bowes Smyth, as having been killed by Aboriginal people, after they disappeared and their clothes were found hanging in a tree.
* information from Mollie Gillen, The Founders of Australia: A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet (1989), p 7
Related Entries in NCB Sites
- McDonald, Alexander (acquaintance)
Citation details
'Allen, William (1762–1788)', People Australia, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://peopleaustralia.anu.edu.au/biography/allen-william-29813/text36907, accessed 11 September 2024.
Life Summary [details]
Birth
1762
Warrington,
Lancashire,
England
Death
March,
1788
(aged ~ 26)
Sydney,
New South Wales,
Australia
Cause of Death
Cultural Heritage
Includes subject's nationality; their parents' nationality; the countries in which they spent a significant part of their childhood, and their self-identity.