150 DR. BENJAMIN ALLEN, OF BRAINTREE.
Braintree, Mr. Allen, my acquaintance and friend." Probably
he had taken over the practice of Dr. Joshua Draper, M.B., of
Braintree, who died 6th September 1686.1 Allen lived in what
is known as "The Great House" (fig. 2), overlooking the Great
Square.2 This house—then, probably, the largest and best in the
town—is of the Tudor Period, but the old work is concealed by
a solemn, Georgian, red-brick front—added, perhaps, by Allen
himself.3
It was at Braintree, doubtless, that Allen married Katherine,
a daughter of Dr. Joshua Draper, above mentioned, and
Katherine his wife. The date of the marriage is not known, but
was probably in or about 1695, when Allen was about thirty-
one years of age and his wife about twenty-four4, as the first
child was born in 1697. This child was a son, who was named
Thomas, and the entry of his baptism in the Braintree Registers
is of interest as showing further that Allen was on terms of
some intimacy with Ray's family :—
1697, August the 12.—Thomas, the son of Benjamin Allen and Katherine
his wife, was baptised : Mr. Thomas Drapers and Mr. Robert Middleton, Clerk'1,
were Godfathers and Mrs. Ray [was] Godmother,
Of the intimacy between Ray and Allen, there is much
evidence. It had commenced, as has been seen above, before
1692, when Allen had discovered some winged glow-worms
(Lampyris noctiluca). In this discovery, Ray evinced much
interest :—
I doubt not [he wrote to Sir Tancred Robinson?] but that they are everywhere to
be found, being nothing else but a kind of long-bodied beetle. . . . The
reason why I mention this is because this gentleman [Allen], meeting with this
beetle and finding by strict observation that the body of it answered exactly in
figure to that of a creeping glow-worm, suspected it to be the male glow-worm ;
and, having some creeping glow-worms by him, [he] put this animal into a box.
1 See the Braintree Registers, wherein he is described as a "Doctor of Viseck."
2 For my knowledge of this fact, I am indebted to Mr. Herbert J. Cunnington, of
Braintree.
3 Since the photograph here reproduced was taken, shop windows have been inserted
on the ground floor, changing still further the appearance of the house.
4 The Braintree Registers show that she was born on 19 July 1671. There must be
some mistake as to Mr. Fitch's statement (Essex Nat., iv., p. 193) that Allen married in 1680 ;
for he can have been no more than sixteen years of age at the time and no children were
born of the marriage until seventeen years later.
5 This was not Allen's father-in-law of that name, but his son, who was born (as the
Registers show) on 22nd March 1672. Allen speaks of him (p. 202) as "my wive's brother,
Mr. Thomas Draper, [who] lived in Gracechurch Street, London." Clearly, he also was a
physician, for Allen relates (p. 119) how he treated a hypochondriacal case. He seems
(p. 203) to have died on or about 7th November 1705.
6 The Rev. Robert Middleton, A.M., was vicar of Braintree from 9th July 1678 to early
in 1690 (see Newcourt's Repertorium, ii., p. 90: 1710).
7 In a letter dated 8th July 1692 (see ante, p. 149).