Charles Allen (son of
Joseph Allen and grandnephew of
Samuel Adams), was a United States Representative from Massachusetts.
He was born in
Worcester, Massachusetts on August 9, 1797; he attended the
Leicester Academy (1809 - 1811) and
Yale College (1811 - 1812) and studied law. He was admitted to the bar in 1818 and commenced practice in
New Braintree; he returned to Worcester in 1824 and continued the practice of law.
Allen was a Member of the
Massachusetts House of Representatives (1830, 1833, 1835, and 1840); he served in the
Massachusetts State Senate (1836 - 1837). He was a member of the
Northeastern Boundary Commission in 1842; a judge of the Court of Common Pleas (1842-1845) and a delegate to the
Whig National Convention at
Philadelphia in 1848. He was elected as the
Free-Soil Party candidate to Congress (March 4, 1849 - March 3, 1853) and did not seek renomination in 1852. In 1849 he edited the Boston " Whig," afterward called the "Republican."
After leaving Congress, he resumed the practice of law in Worcester. He was a member of the state's
constitutional convention in 1853. He was Chief Justice of the
Sufolk County Superior Court (1859-1867)'
He was a delegate to the peace convention held at
Washington, D.C. in 1861, in an effort to devise a means to prevent the impending
Civil War.
Charles Allen died in Worcester on August 6, 1869, three days before his 72nd birthday; he was interred in the Rural Cemetery.
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