United States House of Representatives: History, Art, & Archives
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ALLEN, Samuel Clesson

1772–1842

Office

Representative

State/Territory

Massachusetts

Party

Adams, Adams-Clay Federalist, Federalist

Congress(es)

15th (1817–1819), 16th (1819–1821), 17th (1821–1823), 18th (1823–1825), 19th (1825–1827), 20th (1827–1829)

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Biography

ALLEN, Samuel Clesson, (father of Elisha Hunt Allen), a Representative from Massachusetts; born in Bernardston, Mass., January 5, 1772; attended the public schools of New Salem, and was graduated from Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H., in 1794; studied theology; was ordained as a minister, became pastor of the Congregational Church in Northfield in 1795, and served until 1798; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1800 and practiced in New Salem; member of the State house of representatives 1806-1810; served in the State senate 1812-1815; elected as a Federalist to the Fifteenth through the Seventeenth Congresses, as an Adams-Clay Federalist to the Eighteenth Congress, and as an Adams to the Nineteenth and Twentieth Congresses (March 4, 1817-March 3, 1829); chairman, Committee on Accounts (Seventeenth through Twentieth Congresses); was not a candidate for renomination in 1828; member of the Governor's executive council of Massachusetts 1829-1830; again elected to the State senate in 1831; retired from politics; engaged as a lecturer at Amherst College; member of the board of trustees of Amherst College and of the University of Vermont; died in Northfield, Mass., February 8, 1842; interment in the Village Cemetery, Bernardston, Franklin County, Mass.

View Record in the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress

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External Research Collections

Library of Congress
Manuscript Division

Washington, DC
Papers: In the Joshua Leavitt family papers, 1812-1901, 0.2 linear foot. Correspondents include Samuel Clesson Allen.

New England Historic Genealogical Society

Boston, MA
Papers: In the Henry Wyles Cushman Collection, 1679-1867, 16 linear feet. Correspondence and other papers relating to the estate and Illinois land speculation activities of Samuel Clesson Allen, whose estate Henry Cushman administered. An inventory is available in the repository.
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Bibliography / Further Reading

Allen, Samuel Clesson. An oration, delivered at Greenfield, July 6, 1812: in commemoration of American independence; at the request of the Washington benevolent societies, of the county of Franklin. Greenfield [Mass.]: Printed by Denio and Phelps, 1812.

------. An oration, delivered at Petersham, July 4, 1806, at the anniversary commemoration of American independence. Boston: Printed at the Emerald Press, by Belcher and Armstrong, [1806].

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