Benjamin W. Allen (b. circa ? - d. 1823)
MSA SC 5496-050646
War of 1812 Claimant, Prince George's County, Maryland, 1828
Biography:
Benjamin W. Allen was a slaveholder who lived in Prince George's County, Maryland. Allen was born in Maryland the son of Austin Allen. When his father died in 1805, Benjamin Allen inherited some of his slaves. In addition to slaves Allen owned land in the county. Benjamin Allen first married Elizabeth Tongue in 1790 in Anne Arundel County, MD.1 In October 1817, Allen and his wife Elizabeth, purchased land called Pentling Hills between the Western Branch and Collington Branch in Prince George's County from William Whitaker of Kentucky.2 Benjamin W. Allen married Sarah Smith Hilleary, daughter of George Hilleary and his wife Sarah Smith, on December 2, 1817.3 Benjamin Allen and his wife did not have any children of their own. Through his marriage to Sarah Smith, Allen acquires land that was left to her by her deceased father. In 1818, Benjamin and Sarah Allen, along with his two sisters-in-law, Nancy Hilleary Wilson and Peggy Hilleary, bring a suit against Lancelot Wilson and his wife Harriet Hilleary in the Chancery Court. The petitioners wanted to stop the deforestation of a property in Calvert County, that was left to the Launcelot and Harriet Wilson in the will of the latters father, George Hilleary.4 Launcelot and Harriet Wilson were able to prove that they held the right to use the timber on the land because it was left to them through George Hilleary's will.
Four of Benjamin Allen's enslaved men fled from his property during the War of 1812.5 In August of 1814, Dennis Magruder, Tom Magruder, Davy Gant, and Sam Tyler left the Prince George's county farm of Benjamin Allen.6 The four men marched off with the British from Upper Marlboro. The men initially belonged to Allen's father Austin, but came into Benjamin's ownership upon the elder Allen's death.7 Following the war, Maryland slave owners who lost slaves to the British, submitted claims for compensation. A commission was set up through the Department of State to handle the claims. Benjamin Allen filed a claim for the loss of his property during the war. Maryland slave owners were to receive $260 for each slave they could prove ran to or were carried off by the British. Allen was awarded $1120 for the loss of his four slaves, but he was deceased at the time of payment.8
Benjamin W. Allen died June 20, 1823 in Prince George's County, MD.9 Allen willed that his estate be divided equally between his wife Sarah and his sister Elizabeth Allen. The widow, Sarah Smith Hilleary Allen, died May 1, 1831. In her will, Sarah Allen devised the Allen property Pentling Hills to her cousin John T. Hodges.10
4. CHANCERY COURT (Chancery Papers) 1713-1853, "Injunction Against Removal of Timber, [MSA S512-7-5914], Case No. 5813.
5. Claim of Benjamin W. Allen, Prince. George's County, Case #728, Case Files Ca. 1814-28., entry 190, Record Group 76, National Archives, College Park.
6. ibid.
7. PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY REGISTER OF WILLS (Inventories), 1798-1815, Liber TT1, Folio 70.
8. Claim of Benjamin W. Allen, Prince George's County, Case #728, Case Files Ca. 1814-1828, entry 190, Record Group 76, National Archives, College Park.
9. Effie Gwynn Bowie, Across the Years in Prince George's County, (Richmond, VA: Garrett and Massie, Inc., 1947), 464.
10. ibid.
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