Charles Allen

Charles Allen (August 9, 1797 – August 6, 1869) was a United States representative from Massachusetts. Early years He was born in Worcester, Massachusetts on August 9, 1797, the son Joseph Allen and grandnephew of Samuel Adams). Allen attended Leicester Academy (1809–1811) and Yale College (1811–1812) and studied law. He was admitted to the bar in 1821 and commenced practice in New Braintree. He returned to Worcester in 1824 and continued the practice of law. On October 23, 1827, he was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society. Career Allen was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1830, 1833, 1835, and 1840; he also served in the Massachusetts State Senate in 1836 and 1837. In 1842, he was a member of the Maine-New Brunswick boundary commission created by the Webster–Ashburton Treaty that ended the Aroostook War. He was a judge of the Court of Common Pleas from 1842 to 1845 and a delegate to the 1848 Whig National Convention in Philadelphia. He was twice elected to Congress as a Free-Soil Party candidate (March 4, 1849 – March 3, 1853), but did not seek renomination in 1852. In 1849 he edited the Boston Whig, later called the Republican. After leaving Congress, he resumed the practice of law in Worcester. He was a member of the state's constitutional convention in 1853, and was chief justice of the Suffolk County Superior Court from 1858 to 1867.