Heman Allen (of Colchester)

Heman Allen (February 23, 1779 – April 7, 1852) was a U.S. Representative from Colchester, Vermont.

Born in Poultney, Vermont, Allen attended the common schools. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1795, studied law, was admitted to the bar, and commenced practice in Colchester. He served as Sheriff of Chittenden County, Chief justice of the county court, and as a member of the Vermont House of Representatives.

Allen was elected as a Democratic-Republican to the Fifteenth Congress and served from March 4, 1817, to April 20, 1818, when he resigned. He was appointed United States Marshal for the district of Vermont on December 14, 1818, and reappointed on December 24, 1822. He was appointed by President Monroe as America's first Minister Plenipotentiary to the new republic of Chile beginning on January 27, 1823. When he called on Com. Isaac Hull, whose wife was at her family home saying goodbye before the Hulls sailed to Lima, Allen was making arrangements for passage on the frigate "United States." He met Mrs. Hull's sister Elizabeth, one of the "Seven Lovely Hart Sisters" of Saybrook, and in two weeks they were married and en route to South America. Ann Hart Hull's sister Augusta lived with the Hulls, and was said to have been proposed to by widower Simon Bolivar after his triumphal entry into Lima in Feb. 1824, and that she refused after learning of his fiery and possessive Ecuadorian mistress, Manuelita. Mr. Allen continued in Chile as minister until July 31, 1827. His daughter was stillborn in Valparaiso, and after Elizabeth's sudden death at age 38, he was a widower for 18 years.

Allen served as president of the Burlington branch of the United States Bank from 1830 until the expiration of its charter in 1836. He resumed the practice of his profession in Highgate, where he died April 7, 1852. He was interred in Allen Cemetery in Burlington.

Source

• Heman Allen (of Colchester) at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress

References