Frances Margaret Allen

Frances Margaret "Fanny" Allen (November 13, 1784 – September 10, 1819) was the first New England woman to become a Catholic nun. The daughter of Revolutionary War officer Ethan Allen, she converted to Catholicism and entered the Montreal convent of the Religious Hospitallers of St. Joseph in 1811. Biography Early life Born on November 13, 1784, Frances Margaret Allen was the eldest child of the American patriot Ethan Allen and his second wife, Frances Montresor Brush Buchanan Allen. She was born in a house built by her father on the side of the Batten Kill in Sunderland, Vermont. Her family moved to various settlements in Vermont in her youth, and Frances, who was called Fanny, spent her childhood in Burlington, Westminster, and Swanton. She was four years old when her father died suddenly on February 12, 1789. After her father's death, the family moved to Westminster to live with her maternal grandmother. It was in Westminster that Allen's mother married Dr. Jabez Penniman in 1793. Penniman cared for Fanny as if she were his own daughter, showing a great interest in her education.