| Notes |
- From: ‘Annals of West Tisbury’ and ‘History of Martha’s Vineyard’
The only one of the original purchasing proprietors of this town who remained as a settler, except James Skiffe, was James Allen.
He was the son of Samuel Allen of Braintree and Anne his wife, and was probably born in that town in 1636, the year after his father was made a freeman. Of his early years we have no knowledge, as the records of Braintree and Suffolk county are entirely silent about him, and it is more than likely that, after 1657, when he became of age, he may have removed to some other town in the colony. His sister Sarah married Lieut. Josiah Standish of Bridgewater about this time, and possibly he might be found in that town where his brother Samuel lived, or in that vicinity.
About 1662 James Allen married, his wife's name according to family tradition being Elizabeth Partridge [not Perkins], who was born about 1644, and therefore eight years his junior. It is believed that about this year he removed to Sandwich, Cape Cod, where the births of three children known to be his are recorded, 1663 to 1667, and where he probably formed his personal and business connection with James Skiffe of the same town. (James Allen's sister Abigail married John Cary and lived in Bridgewater and later in Taunton. Benjamin, son of James, preached in Bridgewater after his graduation from Yale.) In the summer of 1668 he was here making the preliminary arrangements with his partners and Mayhew about the purchase of Takemmy, and in the summer of 1669 the bargain with the Indians was consummated. His coming here is almost coincident with the death of his father, which occurred in Braintree in 1669, where he had been town clerk for many years.
By his will, dated Sept. 16,1669, Samuel Allen bequeathed to his son James five pounds to be paid "within three years after my decease," and to his "son in Law Josiah Standish" he devised double that amount.
James Allen's settlement here can be assigned fairly to that year, as no more births of children are recorded in Sandwich. From this time on for forty-five years he was the leading spirit in the towns of Tisbury and Chilmark, and one of the largest land holders. At one time or another he owned seven of the original home lots on the west side of Old Mill brook, besides all the dividends accruing to them, and there are no less than thirty conveyances from him recorded on the county land records. The first home lot drawn by him is thus described:
“Thes are the Lands of James Allin Lieng In the tounship of tisbury one Lot containing forty 8 ackers bounded on the south by nathannil skiffs Lot and on the north by Jaremiah whittons Lot Lieng in bredeth forty 8 pols by the reiver and runeth westward from the reiver 8 skore pols in lenght with one Lot in the gret neck bounded on the est by the middel of the water which partth the neck and on the west by goodman of with a sixtenth part of all undevided Lands and Meddoto the said town the devided Lands being more or les as they are Laid out “
This land, which is now the property of Everett Allen Davis, Esq., was doubtless the location of his residence for twenty years until his removal to Chilmark. He sold it in 1692 to John Pease, Jr., of Edgartown.
When he removed to Chilmark is not definitely known. He began his purchases of the large estate he finally owned there early in February, 1677-8, a tract bounded south by the pond, and he is called "of Tisbury." In 1686, when making another purchase, he is called "of Nashowakemmuck," and this may be the probable date of his change of residence.
His estate or home farm amounted to about 250 acres, by successive purchases, and this he gave to two of his sons before his death. Ebenezer received one half of the entire property in 1698, to be available after the decease of his father and mother, and Samuel received the Keephiggon lot in 1705 near the Tisbury line. Ichabod had acquired large holdings in Chickemmoo and John and Joseph were probably provided for, through their mother's inheritance. Benjamin was the youngest son and not of age till just before his father's death. This probably accounts for the absence of a will or administration on such a large and valuable estate these ante mortem transfers of property.
His public services were characterized by quality and not quantity. In 1675 he was an Assistant under the Mayhew regime, equivalent to a justice on the bench. How long he held this is not known. Besides this he held possibly one town office and but one other county office during his long life. He was appointed on a committee "to procure a new charter" for Tisbury in 1687 (a thing that was never done), and after the inclusion of the island in Massachusetts he was one of the first three justices of the peace. He had served but once as a juryman in all his twenty years of residence up to this date, an unusual record. James Allen was Selectman of Chilmark in 1704, but it may have been his son. He was recommended his appointment by Simon Athearn, who stated that Allen was "reputed wealthy and having such Influence in the people there," and at the same time he advised that Allen be made captain of the military company. It is evident that he had no taste for arms, as he had petitioned the court two years before on the subject, as appears by this record:
“Whereas James Allin of Chilmark did apere before the Coart in order for a dismission from trayning: The Coart bath granted him a dismission provided he doth apere in time of mustering: and doth help Sufficy.”
His standing in the community as stated by Athearn was that of a man of influence, wielding more power than if he had held a score of minor offices in the course of his life. Now he was in the most exalted one to which men in those days could aspire, a justice on the King's Bench, and in this capacity he served the people for at least six years at the Quarterly Sessions of the Peace. As the first one to hold any considerable office of honor or profit on the Vineyard since its settlement, not connected either by blood or marriage with the Mayhew family, Mr. Justice Allen had some distinction beside that of the position itself.
In 1701 he gave to the town of Tisbury its first "God's Acre" for the burial of the dead and as a location for the new meeting-house under contemplation, and within this enclosure lies his body marked with a well-preserved slate stone. His declining years were passed in Chilmark, where a large family of a dozen children were reared, married and half of them settled in homes of their own. All the daughters left the island, but seven sons have perpetuated the name of James Allen their honored father and the parent of sons who maintained his splendid reputation.
May 20, 1671 Town of Tisbury records:
Whereas we whose names are under written have obtained liberty of Mr. Thomas Mayhew to buy & purchas land within the bounds & limits of Taakimmy [i.e. Tisbury] upon the vineyard this May signify unto men that we William Pebodie, Josiah Standish, James Allen and James Skiffe have made purchase of certain lands within the above said bound with a purpose to people or plant the same and do admit of Isaac Robinson, James Skiffe Senior, Simon Athearn, Jeremiah Whitney and John Rogers to be full and joint purchases with and to have full right and title to the whole with ourselves...
[at the time of this documents creation, Martha’s Vineyard was under the jurisdiction of the providence of New York, but with the merger of the Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth colonies in 1686, Martha’s Vineyard became Dukes County in the province of the Massachusetts Bay. The claim in the “History of Martha’s Vineyard” that by 1686 James Allen moved from Tisbury to Chilmark is not supported by the Tisbury town records, as he was still a resident of Tisbury in 1692 if not still later.]
“Voted that James Allen and Peter Robinson are chosen and empowered by the town of Tisbury to go and discover the Indian Steven and Joseph Skeetup and their company who have dwelt in Seconquot and the necks adjacent. And to agree with said Indians so that they said Indians do quit claim of said necks to the town of Tisbury and yield peaceable possession to The English, as reasonable as they can to be understood to agree with Steven, Joseph Skeetup, Sam Nahommon and Joseph Potobppan, as reasonable as they can. Febr 2, 1691-92.” [2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12]
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1636 - 1714 (78 years)