John Allen (settler)
He also made an early crude sketch of some aboriginals which was brought to England and formed the basis of an oil painting now held by the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.
[1] John Allen was born in county Somerset, England, on 16 November 1806, and left London for the colony of Van Diemen's Land in the early part of 1826 in the ship Hugh Crawford, commanded by Captain William Langdon, Royal Navy.
[2] In March 1828, in the context of mutual ongoing violence, when he had finished reaping and secured all his crops, and when all hands were away except one boy, some aboriginals came and burnt all the buildings, the stacks of wheat, and nearly everything Allen possessed; the loss being about £300, besides books, papers, etc., which could not be replaced.
[2] His obituary in The Mercury noted the following anecdote: "[S]o determined was he to succeed that for nine months after the fire he never took off his clothes except on Sunday, and used to sleep on a sheet of bark, with his musket beside him, and his ammunition pouch strapped around him, until he received another bed from England.
[2] For eight hours on one of the hottest days recorded, Allen kept the natives back with a musket and pistol, neither of which he fired; the presentation of the fire-arms in the direction of the aboriginals was apparently sufficient to deter them.
[2] In reprisal for the attacks on farms near Oyster Bay in December 1828, groups of armed colonists pursued the aboriginals and in mid-January 1829 ten natives were shot and two captured at Break O'Day Plains near the Eastern Marshes.
[2] The Warren landed the distressed people at Rio de Janeiro, whence Allen went to England in HMS King William IV,[dubious – discuss] a sloop of war, in command of Lord Colchester.
/ Shipwrecked amongst the Ice off Cape Horn / whilst going to England on the 21 June 1832 / Have patience true Christians / Be right understood / Your transient afflictions / Will work for your good / My troubles are over / My sorrows are past / And God has received / His servant at last.
