Richard Allen (Allan)

Richard Allen was 18 years old when he arrived in New South Wales.

He was tried at Bathurst and was sentenced to 7 years at Moreton Bay penal station for 'Receiving a Bushranger'. In 1839 he was an overseer of convict shepherds at Limestone. In 1840, the remainder of his 7 year sentence was remitted and in 1843 he received his Ticket of Leave.

In July 1848 Richard Allan was mentioned in a Prisoners' list in 'The Moreton Bay Courier' for being an accessory to stealing. On 20 January the following year the same newspaper reported: Murderous assault, and extraordinary escape of the offender – On Saturday night last a most savage assault, with the apparent intent to commit murder, was made at Ipswich, upon the person of a man named Richard Allen, formerly employed as government stock-keeper at Cowper’s Plains, under the superintendence of Mr. D. A. C. G. Kent. It appears, from the statement of Allen, that another man, named Dwyer, a cooper, residing at Ipswich, was intoxicated on the evening in question, and, being exceedingly violent and disorderly when in the state, was in some danger of being taken by the constables, and placed in the lock-up. Allen, who, according to his own account, was sober at the time, went to Dwyer, and, telling him that the Chief Constable and police were going round the township, advised him to go home out of harm’s way. Dwyer then, without further provocation, seized a cooper’s axe, and aimed a deadly blow at Allen’s head with the edge of the weapon.

In 1850, Richard Allen was recorded on the Electoral List as residing in a house at Little Ipswich (West Ipswich). A man of the same name had acquired the Golden Fleece Hotel from John O'Connor the previous year and was subsequently granted the hotel's licence.

Richard died at the Brisbane Hospital on 14 April 1858 at the age of 43, from kidney disease.