146 DR. BENJAMIN ALLEN, OF BRAINTREE.
we know it to-day and won for him a great and lasting reputation.
Ray died at Dewlands on 17th January 1704-5. Both he and
his work are too well known to require lengthy notice here.1
The second of the trio was Samuel Dale (1659?-l738),
physician and apothecary, of Braintree. Dale is said to have
been a son of North Dale, of Whitechapel, silk-throwster, but
is reported to have been born at Braintree. In 1674, he was
apprenticed to an apothecary in London, for eight years. By
1686 (four years after the end of his apprenticeship, and in his
twenty-seventh year or thereabouts), he was already practising
at Braintree, where he lived for the rest of his life. He was
well known in his day as a naturalist, especially as a botanist.
His tastes in this direction were acquired, no doubt, from Ray,
whose disciple, close friend, neighbour, and executor he was.
He was also a valued correspondent of Sir Hans Sloane and
other leading London botanists of the period, as well as a
contributor to the Philosophical Transactions. His best-known
published work is his History of Harwich and Dovercourt (1730).
He died at Braintree on 6th June 1739, aged about eighty
years.2
The third member of the trio in question was Dr. Benjamin
Allen (1663-1738), of Braintree, the subject of this paper.
Though of lesser eminence than either of the other two, he was
an excellent naturalist, as well as a skilled physician, and the
extent to which his name has been forgotten is entirely
undeserved. He appears to have been unknown to the compilers
of all our biographical dictionaries. Even the great Dictionary of
National Biography does not notice him. The only published
information concerning him and his life's work is contained in a
brief note by our Past-President, Mr. E. A. Fitch, published by
the Club eighteen years ago.3 In short, for all practical
purposes, Benjamin Allen is completely forgotten. Yet he is of
interest to us, if only as a friend and neighbour of the illustrious
1 "Dewlands'' stood, just as Ray built it, to our own day, and was visited by the
Club on 23rd June 1898 (see Essex Naturalist, x, pp. 402-404: 1898). Unfortunately, the
house was completely destroyed by fire on 19th September 1900 (see Essex Naturalist, xi,
pp 331-333; 1900). So far as I have been able to ascertain, no photograph of the house
was ever taken. If any of my readers should chance to know of the existence of any photo-
graph, I shall he particularly glad to hear of it. The accompanying view of the house
(the only one which exists so far as I know) is copied from Lankester's Correspondence of
Joint Ray (Ray Soc., 1848).
2 A life of him, by Professor G. S. Boulger, with portrait, appeared in Journ. of Botany
xxi , pp. 193-197 and 225-231 (1883).
3 Essex Nat., iv., pp. 192-193 1890). I am indebted to Mr. Fitch for kind help herein.