ALLEN, George, born Nottingham early to mid 1600's?

[FrancineAllen]

Anyone have Allen info for Nottinghamshire, probably Sherwood area?  Our dead end is this:

Our family has an Elnathan (form of Nathaniel) Allen, born c. 1653 in Kilrush parish, Wexford, Ireland.  We believe his father was George Allen, b. before 1633 in Nottinghamshire, the "Sherwood Forest area." (married 1651 Wexford to a "Susannah" - no surname given)  This comes from Hore's history of Irish families.

Further, Hore and another source say that the Allen's "too firmly opposed Cromwell" and this was why they emigrated to Ireland.  There are no records indicating they went over with Cromwell, who I believe invaded Ireland in 1640.  None of them were married to Cromwell families until about 1690, so they did not get their Irish property as a gift for serving under Cromwell, as many military did in that era. 

So there might be some written record of a landowning Allen family in Sherwood or Nottinghamshire who left because of Cromwell.  Perhaps a newspaper or book citing families considering selling their property and moving, or segments of families going over to Ireland to start over...

I know they were landowners because they promptly leased land near Wexford Town, and by 1725 (have the deed copies of several pieces of property owned or leased by the Allen's there) had accumulated enough money to buy a large piece of land in County Wexford with several dwellings, where they grew flax for linen.  (I've been to that property and will go again soon, but there are no more records there for us, nor in the Wexford parish or library.)

Three branches of our family here in the US were brought up to believe that this Allen family was originally Scottish, so possibly they came down from there when things were unstable in Scotland; if they had money and land they may have felt their chances were better to move south and get entrenched.  But that's speculation.

Anyone have anything solid?  Our family does not add to its gen file anything that is undocumented but I do keep a separate file of possibly related Allen's.

Thanks,
Francine Falk-Allen
San Rafael, CA, USA

[Annie65115]

The only possible match I can find on the FHS CD is this one:

Baptisms 7 Oct 1608 at NEWARK St Mary Magdalene      George   son of Abraham   ALLINE   (no mother given)   

George was the 3rd baptism out of 7 in Newark to Abraham or Abram Allen, Alline or Allin-- others were:
19 Mr 1604  Humffrey  (Allen)
20 Oct 1605 Margret   (Alline)
20 June 1610  William (Alline)
19 Oct 1612 John   (Alline)
11 Nov 1613  Barbarie  (Allen)
1 Aug 1621 Robert   (Allin)

Unfortunately there are 3 marriages for Abraham in this time period at Newark:

1604 01 30   Abraham   ALLEN   Winifred   TURNER
1607 10 31   Abraham   ALLINE   ...   ...   (no wife given)
1617 02 20   Abraham   ALLEN   Ellen   SMITH   


I don't know where the "Sherwood forest area" would have been back in those days - it was clearly a lot more extensive than in moden times. Maybe someone else will be able to advise on that.      

[larkspur]

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/woodboroughheritage/woodboroughasherwoodforestvillage.html

20 miles north to South
9-10 miles wide
= 125-200 sq miles.