John Allen (miner)
Encyclopedia
John Allen was a lead
miner
, notable as a junior member of the party of naturalist
s that accompanied the 1801–1803 voyage of HMS Investigator
under Matthew Flinders
.
, Derbyshire
on 7 May 1775, John Allen was the sixth of ten children of lead miner James Allen and his wife Elizabeth nee Boome. The Allens live in a cottage at Overton, and James Allen was employed nearby at the Gregory Mine. John Allen apparently began working at the mine at the age of twelve, initially cleaning flues, and probably later becoming a labourer in the cope gang led by his eldest brother James. Not much else is known of his early life, but the fact that he could write quite well suggests that he was unusually well educated in literacy for a lead miner.
(that is, western parts of Australia
) and New South Wales
(eastern parts of Australia), to determine whether these were parts of a single land mass, and to search for river systems that might offer access to the interior. The expedition was also to carry a full complement of naturalists, including a mineralogist and, to assist him, a "practical miner". Sir Joseph Banks
was given the authority to select naturalists for the voyage, and seems not to have sought a mineralogist. Instead, he wrote to his uncle, William Milnes, who managed his estate at Overton, asking him to find "a person who engages in the mineral line". The first person Milnes engaged later pulled out, and Milnes subsequently selected Allen for the position. Writing to notify Banks of his choice on 4 February 1801, Milnes described Allen as "... a young man a neighbour whose name is John Allen and who is an ingenious Lad and understands blasting and boring and likewise the nature and construction of Engines—upon ye whole he is I am certain the very man for your office...."
Allen signed his employment contract in the presence of Banks on 29 April 1801, together with the other members of the party of naturalists: Robert Brown
, naturalist; Ferdinand Bauer
, natural history artist; William Westall
, landscape artist; and Peter Good
, horticulturist. Allen was to answer to Brown, would receive an annual salary of £100, and was messed and accommodated with the warrant officer
s. However the Investigator ended up carrying no warrant officers, so Allen was permitted to mess with the officers. Two unoccupied cabins in the cockpit ended up being allocated to Allen and Good.
and the Cape Colony
, the Investigator reached Australia
in December 1801. It sailed along the south coast, through Bass Strait
, and north along the east coast to overwinter at Port Jackson
. It then sailed north up the east coast, rounding the Cape York Peninsula
and entering the Gulf of Carpentaria
. The ship by then being in extremely poor condition, the survey was broken off and the Investigator was sailed to Koepang, Timor
. Many members of the crew became sick with dysentery
there, and Flinders took the decision to return to Port Jackson as quickly as possible. They sailed southwards well west of the west coast of Australia, then east along the south coast, arriving back at Port Jackson in June 1802. The Investigator was condemned, and Flinders sailed for England as passenger on the Porpoise, there to ask for a new ship. Though initially inclined to remain at Port Jackson with some of the other naturalists, ultimately Allen chose to board the Porpoise. On 17 August the Porpoise was wrecked on Wreck Reef. Everyone on board was marooned on a sandbank for six weeks while Flinders sailed the ship's cutter back to Port Jackson to seek help. When help arrived it was in the form of two ships, one of which would return to Port Jackson, while the other was en route to China. Allen elected to sail to China. From there he took a passage to England on the Henry Addington. Arriving at Brighton
on 8 August 1804, Allen made his way to London, where he gave to Banks the first eye-witness account of the voyage, including breaking the news of the death at Port Jackson of the gardener Peter Good
.
Flinders named a Torres Strait
island Allen Island in Allen's honour.
Lead
Lead is a main-group element in the carbon group with the symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal. It is also counted as one of the heavy metals. Metallic lead has a bluish-white color after being freshly cut, but it soon tarnishes to a dull grayish color when exposed...
miner
Mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...
, notable as a junior member of the party of naturalist
Naturalist
Naturalist may refer to:* Practitioner of natural history* Conservationist* Advocate of naturalism * Naturalist , autobiography-See also:* The American Naturalist, periodical* Naturalism...
s that accompanied the 1801–1803 voyage of HMS Investigator
HMS Investigator
Nine ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Investigator. Another was planned, but renamed before being launched: was a 22-gun armed ship purchased in 1798 and taken into service as HMS Xenophon. She was renamed HMS Investigator in 1801 and used as a survey ship. Under the command of...
under Matthew Flinders
Matthew Flinders
Captain Matthew Flinders RN was one of the most successful navigators and cartographers of his age. In a career that spanned just over twenty years, he sailed with Captain William Bligh, circumnavigated Australia and encouraged the use of that name for the continent, which had previously been...
.
Early life
Born in AshoverAshover
Ashover is a village in the English county of Derbyshire. It is in the North East Derbyshire district of the county. It sits in a picturesque valley, not far from the town of Matlock and the Peak District national park. The centre of the village is a conservation area. The River Amber flows through...
, Derbyshire
Derbyshire
Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains. The county contains within its boundary of approx...
on 7 May 1775, John Allen was the sixth of ten children of lead miner James Allen and his wife Elizabeth nee Boome. The Allens live in a cottage at Overton, and James Allen was employed nearby at the Gregory Mine. John Allen apparently began working at the mine at the age of twelve, initially cleaning flues, and probably later becoming a labourer in the cope gang led by his eldest brother James. Not much else is known of his early life, but the fact that he could write quite well suggests that he was unusually well educated in literacy for a lead miner.
Appointed to H.M.S. Investigator
In 1801, the British Admiralty decided to mount an expedition to survey New HollandNew Holland (Australia)
New Holland is a historic name for the island continent of Australia. The name was first applied to Australia in 1644 by the Dutch seafarer Abel Tasman as Nova Hollandia, naming it after the Dutch province of Holland, and remained in use for 180 years....
(that is, western parts of Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
) and New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
(eastern parts of Australia), to determine whether these were parts of a single land mass, and to search for river systems that might offer access to the interior. The expedition was also to carry a full complement of naturalists, including a mineralogist and, to assist him, a "practical miner". Sir Joseph Banks
Joseph Banks
Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, GCB, PRS was an English naturalist, botanist and patron of the natural sciences. He took part in Captain James Cook's first great voyage . Banks is credited with the introduction to the Western world of eucalyptus, acacia, mimosa and the genus named after him,...
was given the authority to select naturalists for the voyage, and seems not to have sought a mineralogist. Instead, he wrote to his uncle, William Milnes, who managed his estate at Overton, asking him to find "a person who engages in the mineral line". The first person Milnes engaged later pulled out, and Milnes subsequently selected Allen for the position. Writing to notify Banks of his choice on 4 February 1801, Milnes described Allen as "... a young man a neighbour whose name is John Allen and who is an ingenious Lad and understands blasting and boring and likewise the nature and construction of Engines—upon ye whole he is I am certain the very man for your office...."
Allen signed his employment contract in the presence of Banks on 29 April 1801, together with the other members of the party of naturalists: Robert Brown
Robert Brown (botanist)
Robert Brown was a Scottish botanist and palaeobotanist who made important contributions to botany largely through his pioneering use of the microscope...
, naturalist; Ferdinand Bauer
Ferdinand Bauer
Ferdinand Lucas Bauer was an Austrian botanical illustrator who travelled on Matthew Flinders' expedition to Australia.-Biography:...
, natural history artist; William Westall
William Westall
William Bury Westall was an English novelist born in Old Accrington, Lancashire, England.Originally a businessman, he later became a journalist who also wrote about 30 pot-boiler romantic novels with titles including The Old Factory, Strange Crimes and Her Ladyship's Secret...
, landscape artist; and Peter Good
Peter Good
Peter Good was the gardener assistant to botanist Robert Brown on the voyage of HMS Investigator under Matthew Flinders, during which the coast of Australia was charted, and various plants collected.-Biography:...
, horticulturist. Allen was to answer to Brown, would receive an annual salary of £100, and was messed and accommodated with the warrant officer
Warrant Officer
A warrant officer is an officer in a military organization who is designated an officer by a warrant, as distinguished from a commissioned officer who is designated an officer by a commission, or from non-commissioned officer who is designated an officer by virtue of seniority.The rank was first...
s. However the Investigator ended up carrying no warrant officers, so Allen was permitted to mess with the officers. Two unoccupied cabins in the cockpit ended up being allocated to Allen and Good.
Voyage
After stopping at MadeiraMadeira
Madeira is a Portuguese archipelago that lies between and , just under 400 km north of Tenerife, Canary Islands, in the north Atlantic Ocean and an outermost region of the European Union...
and the Cape Colony
Cape Colony
The Cape Colony, part of modern South Africa, was established by the Dutch East India Company in 1652, with the founding of Cape Town. It was subsequently occupied by the British in 1795 when the Netherlands were occupied by revolutionary France, so that the French revolutionaries could not take...
, the Investigator reached Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
in December 1801. It sailed along the south coast, through Bass Strait
Bass Strait
Bass Strait is a sea strait separating Tasmania from the south of the Australian mainland, specifically the state of Victoria.-Extent:The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Bass Strait as follows:...
, and north along the east coast to overwinter at Port Jackson
Port Jackson
Port Jackson, containing Sydney Harbour, is the natural harbour of Sydney, Australia. It is known for its beauty, and in particular, as the location of the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge...
. It then sailed north up the east coast, rounding the Cape York Peninsula
Cape York Peninsula
Cape York Peninsula is a large remote peninsula located in Far North Queensland at the tip of the state of Queensland, Australia, the largest unspoilt wilderness in northern Australia and one of the last remaining wilderness areas on Earth...
and entering the Gulf of Carpentaria
Gulf of Carpentaria
The Gulf of Carpentaria is a large, shallow sea enclosed on three sides by northern Australia and bounded on the north by the Arafura Sea...
. The ship by then being in extremely poor condition, the survey was broken off and the Investigator was sailed to Koepang, Timor
Timor
Timor is an island at the southern end of Maritime Southeast Asia, north of the Timor Sea. It is divided between the independent state of East Timor, and West Timor, belonging to the Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara. The island's surface is 30,777 square kilometres...
. Many members of the crew became sick with dysentery
Dysentery
Dysentery is an inflammatory disorder of the intestine, especially of the colon, that results in severe diarrhea containing mucus and/or blood in the faeces with fever and abdominal pain. If left untreated, dysentery can be fatal.There are differences between dysentery and normal bloody diarrhoea...
there, and Flinders took the decision to return to Port Jackson as quickly as possible. They sailed southwards well west of the west coast of Australia, then east along the south coast, arriving back at Port Jackson in June 1802. The Investigator was condemned, and Flinders sailed for England as passenger on the Porpoise, there to ask for a new ship. Though initially inclined to remain at Port Jackson with some of the other naturalists, ultimately Allen chose to board the Porpoise. On 17 August the Porpoise was wrecked on Wreck Reef. Everyone on board was marooned on a sandbank for six weeks while Flinders sailed the ship's cutter back to Port Jackson to seek help. When help arrived it was in the form of two ships, one of which would return to Port Jackson, while the other was en route to China. Allen elected to sail to China. From there he took a passage to England on the Henry Addington. Arriving at Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
on 8 August 1804, Allen made his way to London, where he gave to Banks the first eye-witness account of the voyage, including breaking the news of the death at Port Jackson of the gardener Peter Good
Peter Good
Peter Good was the gardener assistant to botanist Robert Brown on the voyage of HMS Investigator under Matthew Flinders, during which the coast of Australia was charted, and various plants collected.-Biography:...
.
Later life
Nothing is known of Allen's later life except that Flinders records having received a visit from him in 1810. Flinders had only just returned to England at the time, and was staying at his sister's house in Boston.Legacy
It is impossible to gauge the importance of Allen's work on the Investigator voyage, because, as assistant to more senior naturalists, he did not receive scientific credit for his collections; and Brown paid little attention to geology anyhow, having been instructed by Banks that "Geology Mineralogy must be considered by you as subsidiary pursuits & you will be required to do in them no more than is compatible with a full attention to Botany Entemology Ornothology etc." Brown, who could be extremely ascerbic at times, wrote to Banks that Allen was "really of very little use".Flinders named a Torres Strait
Torres Strait
The Torres Strait is a body of water which lies between Australia and the Melanesian island of New Guinea. It is approximately wide at its narrowest extent. To the south is Cape York Peninsula, the northernmost continental extremity of the Australian state of Queensland...
island Allen Island in Allen's honour.