Mary Allen

Biography

Mary Brownson (daughter of Cornelius Browson, Jr. and Abigail Jackson) was born 24 August 1732 at Woodbury, Litchfield, Connecticut, and died Feb 1783 of consumption at Sunderland, Bennington, Republic of Vermont.

She is buried at the Saint James Episcopal Church Cemetery, Arlington, Bennington, Vermont.

Inscription:

wife of Gen. Ethan Allen
Erected by the Brownson Chapter of DAR 1895

Family

Ethan Allen, son of Joseph Allen and Mary (Baker) Allen, was born 10 January 1737/8, in Litchfield, Connecticut.[8] That is 21 January 1738 in the Gregorian Calendar.

He married first on 23 June 1762, in Washington, Litchfield, Connecticut, to Mary Brownson.

Children of Mary Brownson and Ethan Allen:

• i Loraine Allen born 21 Apr 1763, died 1783, Sunderland, Vermont[10]
• ii Joseph E. Allen born 25 Nov 1765, died 1777 in Sheffield, Massachusetts[10]
• iii Lucy Caroline Allen born 1768; m. 26 May 1789, Judge Samuel Hitchcock of Burlington.[10]
• iv Mary Ann (Maryan) Allen[10] born 1772, died Oct 1790, Burlington, VT.
• v Pamelia Allen born 1779.[citation needed] She m. Eleazer W. Keyes of Burlington, where she died before 1810 without children.[10]

Ethan married second on 9 February 1784, in Westminister, Vermont, to Frances "Fanny" Montresor Brush Buchanan, born 4 April 1760, New York, New York, and died 1834.

Ethan died 12 Feb 1789, Burlington, Vermont, and was buried at Greenmount Cemetery, in Burlington, Vermont.

Comments

Mary was the first wife of Ethan Allen, a leader in the American Revolutionary War who fought for Vermont's independence from the Province of New York. Their marriage was not particularly happy. Mary was supposedly a rigid Frontier wife who was illiterate, deeply religious and shrewish. However, there is little historical evidence to support these claimed characteristics.

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References

• The best book on Ethan Allen is Duffy and Muller's Inventing Ethan Allen (2014), which uses the spelling "Brownson." The "Bronsons" seem to come further down the line. Per Duffy and Muller, Mary's parents were Cornelius Brownson, Jr. (1692-1772) and Abigail Jackson (1693-1772), both of Woodbury, Connecticut. Their children were Stephen, Elijah, Gideon, Jedidiah, Anna, Abraham, John, Mary, Israel, and Patience.
• https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Allen-1
• https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Bronson-11

1. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/12786743/mary-allen
2. Genealogies of Connecticut Families (Genealogical Publishing Company, 1983) Vol. 1, Page 16 <GoogleBooks> (lists as daughter of Richard Bronson)
3. Ancestry Family Trees (Ancestry.com, Provo, UT, USA) Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members. http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=2701874&pid=...
4. familysearch.org
5. "Connecticut Births and Christenings, 1649-1906", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F73L-BZV : 7 January 2020), Mary in entry for Lorain Allen, 1763.
6. "Connecticut Births and Christenings, 1649-1906", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F73L-BZL : 7 January 2020), Mary in entry for Joseph Allen, 1765.
7. "Vermont Vital Records, 1760-1954", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XFFL-K9H : 19 February 2021), Mary Brownson, 1783.
8. "Vermont, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1732-2005," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPQV-LXVD : 3 March 2021), Mary Brownson Allen, 1783; citing Death, Vermont, United States, various town clerks and records divisions, Vermont; FHL microfilm 005465043.