Author: ALLEN, John
Biography:
ALLEN, John (1797-1867: Potter)
No record of his birth has been located although he may have been the John Allen, son of John and Ann Allen, who was baptised in Sawley, Derbyshire, on 27 Jan. 1797. Potter gives his place and year of birth as Lea, near Matlock, in 1797. Allen lived all of his life in or near Matlock. He was born in humble circumstances and self-educated; he became a schoolmaster in Wirksworth (which he called Foro Porcorum). He wrote an arithmetic textbook and was a talented musician who composed hymns; he was also a numismatist with a gift for identifying rare coins. He married Lydia Alsop but no record has been located and it is not known if they had children. Allen was elected Master of the Bonsall Grammar School; the 1841 Census shows him living at the school with Lydia but by 1851 he had retired and they had moved to Matlock Bath. He served as the organist at Holy Trinity Church in Matlock. Allen died on 15 Dec. 1867 and was buried in the churchyard at Holy Trinity. His only other publication is Matlock. A Poem which was first issued in 1848; a second enlarged edition appeared in 1860. (ancestry.co.uk 13 Sept. 2022; Thomas Russell Potter, “Three Neglected Derbyshire Worthies,” The Reliquary 12 [1871-72] 158-60) SR