ALLEN, JOLLEY--Page 1

We are certain Jolley Allen had children. He made a statement in his manuscript that he had lived with his wife 37 years, and she had borne him seventeen children. Only nine of them were recorded in Boston, and of those nine only one is known for sure to have had a child—Jolley Allen, Jr. moved to New London, CT and was known to have had a daughter named Mary (Polly.)

But Jolley Allen Sr. had lots of nieces and nephews through two of his brothers, Thomas and Lewis. Perhaps you have already made the connection, perhaps he is your uncle, or perhaps you can share your Jolley Allen genealogy with us.

Jolley Allen was a Loyalist who literally lost everything due to his unshakable allegiance to King and England. The story of Jolley Allen’s shipwreck takes on a different tone depending on who is telling the story—the Patriot Americans, or Jolley the Loyalist himself.

Jolley Allen had come to Boston from England in 1754, and there he set up a shop which sold goods from England and India. Jolley also had an inn and a stable. He prospered and was happy there for over twenty years. He owned a pew in King’s Chapel, and a tomb there as well.

Jolley says in his manuscript that his first ‘mistake’ was to purchase tea from Governor Hutchinson’s sons. After that, Jolley opened his inn to accommodate British officers. Boston’s Town Committee couldn’t punish him for this legally, so instead they "injured his trade."

Jolley decided to leave Boston with a fleet of British ships. He hired a sloop, named Sally, and hired also a Captain Robert Campbell to pilot it. Kittredge says this captain did not know one end of a vessel from the other, and soon wrecked the sloop on Peaked Hill bars behind Provincetown. The Captain was ineffective in trying to save the ship, the British fleet was out of sight, and on top of it all one of the party had come down with smallpox. [Jolley Allen--Page 2]