Buckingham Notables: The Allens of Hunts Creek, Part VII

Allen Territory.  Note: Rocky and Hunts creeks.  

Buckingham County, Virginia, northeast corner, c. 1991.

The Fall 2018 Issue of Central Virginia Heritage includes three Allen family wills transcribed by Jean L. Cooper. These wills inspired “The Allens of Hunts Creek.”

Need to catch up? Click here: Buckingham Notables: The Allens of Hunts Creek, Part I

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William Hunt Allen, 1806 will, continued

William Hunt Allen also gave instructions as to the disbursement of his wife’s property after her death, distributing rather than concentrating his extensive holdings in Buckingham County. Since we don’t know Elizabeth Allen’s age at the time of her husband’s death or her death date, it is difficult to discern how and when her property was dispersed.

First, William Hunt Allen ordered his nephew, William Allen (son of George), to sell the home plantation after his widow’s death and, rather specifically, to purchase lands in “the western country with the profits arising therefrom for the benefit of himself during his life but then to be for the equal benefit of all his sons which he may leave at his death.”

Thankfully, William Hunt Allen identified this William Allen’s father as George. He was George Hunt Allen (1734–1778), who married Mary Ballard. This William Allen was born in Buckingham County on April 5, 1771 and married his cousin Nancy Allen. Members of this line indeed moved westerly, first to Tennessee and then to Texas.

Additionally, after Elizabeth Allen’s death, nephew William Allen (son of George) was to inherit six slaves originally left to Elizabeth. William also directly inherited slaves Hannah and “great Tom,” as well as 400 acres on Rockey Creek in Buckingham County, which he was free to sell and the profits of which were to purchase “lands in the western county.” It was a sizable inheritance.

This nephew was clearly a trusted favorite of William Hunt Allen, perhaps, a surrogate son. From the wording of the will, William Allen was already planning his family’s removal to Tennessee, escaping the increasingly crowded Central Virginia. A widely known gentleman, William Allen is the author of the third Buckingham County will and his obituary appeared in the Richmond Enquirer on March 16, 1824. He died in Virginia before making the move to Tennessee, though his widow and their children went west after his death—perhaps, primarily funded by William Hunt Allen.

Coming next: Buckingham Notables: The Allens of Hunts Creek, Part VIII