useful labors both in public and private vocations." He died Oct. 22, 1808, in the 70th year of his age. His widow, Ruth (Viall) Allen, died Nov. 7, 1811, aged 74 years. Children: Asa Allen, b. 1760, d. 1805; Joseph Viall Allen, b. 1762, lost at sea in a hurricane Oct. S, 1780; Rachel Allen, b. 1765, d. 1847; Samuel Allen, b. 1768, d. 1827; Sylvester Allen, b. 1770, d. 1776; James Allen, b. 1772, d. 1774; Eunice Allen, b. 1775; Sylvester Allen, b. 1778, d. 1832; James Allen, Jr., b. 1780, d. 1789.
Brown, John. The ancestors of the Brown families lived in the south and west of England, and emigrated to Boston and Plymouth between the years 1620 and 1692. Peter Brown, the first comer, was of Puritan stock, and came in the Mayflower, in 1620. He was young and unmarried at the time of his arrival, but before 1633, the date of his death, had married two wives, and two children had been born of each. Peter settled in Duxbury.
John Brown became acquainted with the Pilgrims at Leyden, prior to 1620. The year of his arrival in America is unknown, probably about 1630, as we find him elected a freeman in 1634, and in 1636 an assistant, an office which he held by annual election for seventeen years. He was at this time between forty and fifty years of age, as we find his son, James Brown, admitted as a freeman in 1636. Mr. Brown was a man of large intelligence, great energy of character, and deep and earnest piety.
He was a grand pioneer in the settlement of the towns on the west of old Plymouth. In 1636 he was a resident of Duxbury. We find his name among the purchasers of the tract of land called Cohannett, or Taunton, in 1637, and he with Miles Standish erected bounds around the purchase in 1640. Thither he had probably removed with his family before 1643, for among the fifty-four males subject to military duty in that year, his name stands first, followed by those of his two sons, John, Jr., and James.
During the same year he was one of the company to purchase Rehoboth, and his interest in that township was the largest of any, amounting to £600.
Prior to June 9, 1645, he had removed to Rehoboth, for we find his name first, with six others, who were chosen to order the prudential affairs of that town for six months. His son James removed from Taunton with him, and his son John followed in 1647. In December, 1645, Mr. Brown, Sr., became sole proprietor of the section known by the Indians as Wannamoisett, and Wannamoisett Neck, (now Bullock's Point and Riverside), which originally included a portion of the present towns of Rehoboth and Swansea, with a large portion of Barrington, and the south part of Seekonk and East Providence. His name appears on all of the important committees of the town. Now he was chosen to carry on a suit at the Court,—afterwards "to make diligent search to find out the most convenient way between Rehoboth and Dedham,"—then he, with Mr. Peter Hunt, were ordered to go to Plymouth, "to make agreement about the Indian complaints," and various other records of public duties, which
