ALLIN, Thomas (c.1651-96), of Somerleyton, Suff.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1660-1690, ed. B.D. Henning, 1983
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

12 Nov. 1678
Mar. 1679

Family and Education

b.c.1651, 1st s. of Sir Thomas Allin, 1st Bt., of Olderings House, Lowestoft, and Mark Lane, London by 1st w. Alice, da. of Walter Whiting, master-mariner, of Lowestoft. m. lic. 16 Dec. 1672, aged 21, Mary, da. of Thomas Colwall, merchant, of St. Bartholomew Lane, London, s.p. suc. fa. as 2nd Bt. Oct. 1685.1

Offices Held

J.p. Suff. 1677-July 1688, 1689-94; commr. for assessment Suff. 1677-80, Dunwich 1679-80, Suff. and Dunwich 1689-90; freeman, Dunwich 1678; dep. lt. Suff. 1680-?94, v.-adm. 1683-92; alderman, Southwold 1684-?Oct. 1688.2

Gent. of privy chamber 1691-d.3

Biography

Allin’s father, a local merchant and shipowner, was the leader of the royalist rising in Lowestoft in 1643. He escaped to Holland, served in the royalist fleet during the second Civil War, and was twice imprisoned during the Interregnum. After the Restoration he became an admiral and sat on the navy board from 1671 to 1680. He was able to build up a considerable estate in his native county, contested Dunwich in 1671, and was created a baronet in 1673.4

Allin himself became active in Suffolk affairs in 1677, and in the next year he was returned to the Cavalier Parliament at a by-election for Dunwich as a court supporter. Shaftesbury classed him as ‘doubly vile’. Re-elected in 1679, he was classed as ‘base’ by Shaftesbury and duly voted against the first exclusion bill. He was not appointed to any committees and made no recorded speeches in either Parliament. He did not stand again until 1689, when he was involved in a double return with two Whigs, which was decided against him without his ever sitting in the Convention. Although he accepted the Revolution, and was even given a place at Court, he was one of the Tory magistrates removed from the Suffolk bench in 1694. On his death in October 1696 the baronetcy became extinct, but his nephew and heir Richard Anguish assumed the name of Allin and was created a baronet on 14 Dec. 1699.5

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: Paula Watson

Notes

  • 1. Allin Jnl. (Navy Rec. Soc. lxxix), pp. xi-xiii.
  • 2. E. Suff. RO, EE6/1144/13; CSP Dom. 1685, p. 166; Ind. 24552; SP44/335/360.
  • 3. Carlisle, Privy Chamber, 208.
  • 4. Cal. Comm. Comp. 3129; Knyvett Letters (Norf. Rec. Soc. xx), 32-33.
  • 5. CJ, x. 35-36; E. Bohun, Autobiog. 121.