Robert Allen

Awarded a share of the compensation with a large group of claimants for the enslaved people on Tryall estate in Hanover, and awarded in his own right the compensation for Recovery Pen, also in Hanover Jamaica. The Tryall estate is shown as 'Robert Allen et al.' or variants from the 1811 Jamaica Almanac onwards: it appears likely that he was the son of a previous co-owner William Allen (q.v.) whose will proved in 1798 identified an eldest son Robert, of Arundel Street in London.

1. According to the Jamaica lawyer Andrew Graham Dignum (q.v.), Robert Allen of Tryall was shot (and killed) 'protecting the said property' during the Baptist War of 1831: his wife was awarded £10 and each of his children £5 by the House of Assembly in April 1832, and £10 was granted to the Churchwardens of Hanover to place a tombstone over Robert Allen's grave. If this is correct the Robert Allen killed at Tryall must have been a son or nephew of the Allen family.

2. The Robert Allen of the award was a director of London Assurance, until his death in 1852. His will, of Lewisham Kent, proved 10/08/1852, left monetary legacies to many relatives and friends, but sheds no light on this nexus around the Tryall estate and makes no reference to Jamaica.

3. Robert Allen of 95 Royal Exchange was shown as ordering an engine from Boulton & Watt in 1814 for 'his own estate' at Orange Cove, Hanover. Orange Cove was shown from 1817-1823 as owned by William Allen, who in the same period acted as attorney for Tryall and Recovery Pen as well as many other Hanover estates.

T71/872 Hanover claim nos. 56A-H (Tryall Estate) and 58 (Recovery Pen). T71/1212 shows him as of Laytonstone [sic] Essex and London Assurance House.

1. Andrew Robert Dignum, A letter to the Right Honorable the Earl of Suffield on subjects connected with slavery in the Island of Jamaica (London: Joseph Shackell, 1832), p. 14.

2. B. W. Higman, Plantation Jamaica 1750-1850: capital and control in a colonial economy (Mona, Jamaica, University of West Indies Press, 2005), pp. 153 and 158 shows him as owner of Tryall and of Cornhill; London Gazette, Issue 21344, 30/07/1852, p. 2113 shows the election of a replacement for Robert Allen deceased in August 1852; PROB 11/2157/170.

3. Birmingham Archives. Boulton & Watt Collection MS 3147/5/872. Robert Allen, Jamaica (ZBB) [Hazleton's Portfolio 874]. For Robert Allen, 95 Royal Exchange, St. James St., London, for his own estate at Orange Cove, Hanover, Jamaica. Sugar plantation engine [?]. The original drawings for this engine were made in Sep. 1814. The drawings note that Allen was supplied with two boilers.