ALLEIN, Francis (1605-58), of Fleet Street, London and Caron House, Lambeth, Surr.

Assuming that Allein was not baptised on the day of his birth, he was born some time in late 1605 and was the third son of the vicar of Gretton in Northamptonshire, where his father owed his incumbency to the Hatton family of nearby Kirby Hall. In London, too, Allein lived close to his childhood neighbour Sir Christopher Hatton*, whose Hatton Garden estate lay nearby Allein's Fleet Street business, and he remained a friend of the family in later years.40Gretton par. reg.; T.C. Dale, Inhabitants of London, 231; Corresp. of the family of Hatton (Camden Soc., 2 vols. 1878) , i. 7. The extent of the Hattons’ influence over Allein’s early career, and in particular his entry into the Goldsmith's Company, in unknown. In 1628, shortly after becoming a freeman of the Company, Allein married the widow of a goldsmith of St Dunstan’s parish, and through her acquired the premises in Fleet Street. He continued in trade there throughout the 1640s, having refused to comply with the star chamber order in 1638 for all goldsmiths to remove to Cheapside. Consequently he was unable to accept the livery of the Company.41P. Griffiths, ‘Politics made visible: order, residence and uniformity in Cheapside, 1600-1645’, in Londonopolis: essays in the social and cultural history of early modern London, ed. P. Griffiths and M. Jenner (2000), 189-90. This did not seem to affect his relations with his fellow goldsmiths – his stepdaughter went on to marry John Barkstead*, the son of a member of the Company – and by the early 1640s he was already a wealthy man, with a lucrative sideline in lending money to noblemen as far afield as Scotland and Ireland.42The Mystery of the Good Old Cause (July 1660), 2, 23 (E1923.2); NLS, MS 8, ff. 10-11; Add. 31116, p. 592; cf. E. Suss. RO, GLY/619. Allein was also active as a merchant specializing in the North American trade, and he was a member of the Somers Islands Company by the early 1640s.43Lefroy, Memorials of the Bermudas i. 590. In the spring of 1642 he headed a consortium of Londoners (including Barkstead) who invested £700 in the Irish Adventure.44CSP Ire. 1647-60, p. 450.

As a candidate in the Cockermouth by-election in April 1642, Allein was dependent on the 4th earl of Northumberland, lord of the manor of Cockermouth, who had secured the re-enfranchisement of the borough in February 1641. Northumberland’s reasons for promoting Allein as the replacement for Sir John Fenwick* (who had chosen to sit for Northumberland shire instead) are not known: Allein was as yet a minor figure, whose only experience of office was as scavenger in the parish of St Dunstan-in-the-West. The contest at Cockermouth on 25 April resulted in a double return. Allein and his rival, the future royalist Sir Thomas Sandford*, both appear initially to have gained 45 votes, but, with doubt cast on two of Allein’s supporters, Sandford seems to have been the more forward in claiming the seat, even though Allein was said to have gained ‘the major part of the inhabiting burgesses’.45Cumbria RO (Carlisle), D/Lec/107. Allein's petition, though late, was accepted by the committee of privileges, which ruled on 28 May that he ‘be not precluded or prejudiced by any elapse of time for not bringing in his petition within the designated time’, and the matter was referred to the committee of privileges on 1 July.46CJ ii. 648b, 665a; PJ iii. 154, 236. The case was not finally decided until September 1645, when a new report was ordered, and when the committee reconvened to consider the case on 7 October it was bolstered by such supporters of Northumberland as Robert Scawen, Sir John Evelyn of Wiltshire and Sir Henry Vane II.47CJ iv. 260a, 283a, 300a. Allein’s election was approved on 3 December, and his indenture was filed at the bar of the House on 9 December.48CJ iv. 364b, 370b.

In the meantime, Allein had significantly increased his standing both locally and nationally. In November 1642 he was involved in the stockpiling of oats and corn for the earl of Essex’s army, which he jealously guarded against the claims of other officers.49Add. 18777, f. 75. In the following April, Allein and Henry Darley* were again involved in supplying provender to Essex’s army.50CJ iii. 58b. Allein was appointed a customs commissioner in January 1643 and in October he was made a commissioner to Scotland.51A. and O.; Add. 31116, p. 66; CJ iii. 284a; LJ vi. 273b, 288a, 461b. Allein entered England with the Scottish army early in 1644, but had returned to Westminster by July, when he resumed attendance at the Committee for Compounding (to which he had been added in November 1643). Allein was an active member of this committee, attending most meetings from mid-1644 until January 1645.52CJ iii. 310b; CSP Dom. 1644, pp. 46, 49; SP23/2, pp. 1-45. Late in March 1645, Allein was included on the New Model army’s financial executive, the Committee for the Army, and was also appointed one of the treasurers at war.53A. and O.; CSP Dom. 1644-5, p. 377. Holles, writing later, was in no doubt that Allein used his position as treasurer at war to advance the interests of the new army’s Independent patrons.54Maseres Tracts i. 253. Other evidence confirms that Allein was closely involved in the creation of the New Model. In April 1645 he went to Reading, where he attended the reforming of regiments with another treasurer at war, John Dethick.55Firth and Davies, Regimental Hist. ii. 425-6. In May Allein was involved in sending money to the army’s headquarters at St Albans; in June the Committee of Both Kingdoms instructed him to report the state of supllies to the army; and in July he was ordered to provide ammunition for Sir Thomas Fairfax* in his operations in the west of England.56CSP Dom. 1644-5, pp. 497-8, 570; 1645-7, p. 18. As treasurer at war, Allein worked closely with another of Northumberland’s protégés, the chairman of the Army Committee, Robert Scawen*. On 1 August 1645, for example, Scawen stipulated in an order to the treasurers ‘that Mr Allein be desired to take care’ of one item of business.57SP28/31/6, f. 610v; J. Adamson, ‘Of Armies and Architecture: the Employments of Robert Scawen’, in eds. I. Gentles, J. Morrill and B. Worden, Soldiers, Writers and Statesmen of the English Revolution (Cambridge, 1998), 53.

Allein's political advancement did much to repair his relations with the City of London. In the early stages of the war, he had been something of a maverick figure in London, attempting the broaden the francise in his ward of Farringdon South in 1642, and being investigated for the purloining of 1,000 tents from Clerkenwell in the autumn of 1643.58Oxford DNB; CCAM 274. He retained a degree of support among the citizens, however, and his appointment as a commissioner to the Scots in November 1643 was on the recommendation of the common council of London.59CJ iii. 284a. By the end of 1644, Allein’s standing had improved considerably. The Goldsmiths’ Company recorded in their court minutes, on 8 November 1644, that:

the Parliament hath cast an eye of favour and particular respect upon Mr Francis Allein... and appointed him to be not only one of the Company sitting at this Hall for the raising of money for our Brethren of Scotland but also placed him in an eminent place of great Credit and trust in the Customs House of London wherein (as this court was informed) he doth so demean himself that he doth gain a general good repute of most men that have to deal with him therein.60CJ ii 590b, iii 284a, iv 364b, 370b; GL, MS 3016/1, pp. 221, 288; Goldsmiths' Co. Court Bk. W, ff. 267b-268b.

Perhaps in anticipation of the political advantage to be derived to the Company for this appointment, Allein was soon afterwards granted the Company's livery, without conditions. He accepted, but not before the court had declared their abhorrence of the Star Chamber order which had prevented his earlier admittance to the livery. At this time Allein also took his place in the City's Presbyterian dominated government as common councilman for the ward of Farringdon Without, and also became one of the leading figures in the parish of St Dunstan-in-the-West, where from the post of scavenger he rose to become trier, elder and vestryman.61Firth and Davies, Regimental Hist. ii 425-6, 429; CSP Dom. 1644-5, pp. 497, 570. In August 1645 he was added to the militia committee for London.62LJ vii. 542a. In the months that followed, Allein again became a controversial figure in the City, siding with a faction that challenged the power of the pro-Presbyterian ruling clique. In an early sign of this, on 25 October 1645 Thomas Juxon* noted a dispute in the common council over the choice of elders for the London classis, and that Allein and his fellow customs collectors ‘held it for the negative, alleging that it had been long and seriously debated in Parliament, that ordinance, and twas not judged fit to allow them [the ministers] more power’.63Juxon Diary, 90.

Parliament and controversy, 1645-6

With the election dispute decided in his favour, on 11 December 1645 Allein took his seat in the Commons, and was named to a committee to consider a petition from the Assembly of Divines concerning the remonstrance of the ‘dissenting brethren’.64CJ iv. 373a. On 30 December he was sent as messenger to the London militia committee, and the next day he signed the Solemn League and Covenant.65CJ iv. 392b, 393a. In January 1646 he was appointed to committees concerning his twin interests of London and military finance: to attend the London militia committee to answer their requests for further powers (6 Jan.); ‘to consider and prepare’ an establishment for the payment of the garrison at Windsor (7 January); and to bring Whitefriars and other exempted areas of London under the jurisdiction of the Presbyterian religious system (21 January).66CJ iv. 398a, 399a, 413b.

By this time, Allein had become embroiled in further controversy. On 3 January the Commons ordered Allein and the Presbyterian MP Walter Long*, to appear before them, and on 8 January the House heard Allein’s allegation that during a dispute Long had struck him and threatened to draw his sword.67CJ iv. 395a, 397b, 400a. The business was considered by a committee of the whole House on 15 January, and on 27 January a report was ordered, but it went no further, on Long's admission of guilt.68CJ iv. 402a, 407a, 408a, 412b, 420a. Allein was at the centre of another, more serious, debate at the beginning of February. On 11 February Allein reported to the House the contents of a letter from the Scottish commissioners to the common council, in which he claimed that the earl of Lauderdale had declared anyone who spoke against the Scottish army to be a malignant.69CJ iv. 437a. Both sides alleged they had been misrepresented, Allein claiming in his own defence that his report had been misquoted by the clerk of the House. Common council claimed a breach of their privileges, which they outlined in a petition drawn up and presented by leading City Presbyterians, and also alleged that Allein’s behavior threatened to create a rift between the English and Scottish nations.70CLRO, common council jnl. 40, ff. 170-3. According to Juxon, by 14 February some of the Common Council were ‘very violent against Francis Allein, and that they would have him called to account for not only breaking his oath in revealing the votes of Common Council but giving a false report’.71Juxon Diary, 102. Denied time and counsel, Allein refused to say anything further in his own defence before Common Council but when their petition against him was submitted to the House of Commons on 20 February it was greeted with concern, ‘the House resenting much the bringing in of such a petition against a member of the House and charging him with falsehood’.72CLRO, common council jnl. 40, f. 172; Add. 31116, p. 511. The next day, after ‘a long debate’, the Commons declared that ‘in making known to the House the proceedings at the Common Council in that business, he did but his duty’.73Add. 31116, p. 511; CJ iv. 449a. Presbyterian feelings were, however, running high. A motion to include the details of the matter in the Journals was defeated by a resounding 120 vote to 72, with Denzil Holles* and John Glynne* telling against, and Evelyn of Wiltshire and Sir Arthur Hesilrige* telling in favour.74CJ iv. 449a. It had been a brusing encounter, and Allein was said to be ‘unhappy in this, that five days have been spent upon him in this and [on] Long’s business since in the House’.75Juxon Diary, 104.

According to the Scottish commissioner Robert Baillie, writing on 20 February 1646, Allein had until then been ‘a professed Presbyterian and at first a great friend to us, but since some fell off us, a busy and diligent agent for the Independent party’; but it is unlikely that Allein's shift in opinion was as extreme as Baillie suggested. Indeed, despite his involvement in the establishment of the classis system in London, it is doubtful that Allein ever supported Presbyterianism on anything other than an erastian model with provisions for parliamentary control and a degree of toleration. Allein was by no means opposed to Independent ministers, and before his own parish vestry committee supported the continuation of William Strong's lectureship, and was called upon to invite him to preach to the Commons on numerous fast days in the later 1640s.76Baillie, Letters and Jnls ii. 353; GL, MS 3016/1, p. 291; CJ v. 131a, 201b, 545b; vi. 251a. And although he was later accused of being a mere ‘pretending Independent’, he was closely connected with Joseph Caryll from the 1640s onwards, and left money to him in his will, and during the interregnum he presented the Congregationalist, Thomas Gilbert, as minister of Ealing.77A. Wilbee, Comparatis Comparandis (1647), 17 (E413.1); CJ v. 546a, 580a; vi. 582a; PROB11/295, f. 123; E. Jackson, Annals of Ealing, 27.

Despite his notoriety, during the spring and summer of 1646, Allein remained an active member of the Commons. On 3 March he was named to a committee to raise money for the forces under Major General Richard Browne; on 9 March he was called upon to consider the value of regalia for the Order of the Garter and other treasure discovered at Windsor; and on 16 March he was nominated as one of the commissioners for foreign plantations (an appointment confirmed on 21 March).78CJ iv. 461a, 468a, 476a, 477b; LJ viii. 225b. In the dying days of the first civil war, Allein was particularly concerned with the security of London. On 26 March he was named to a committee to draft a proclamation to regulate the influx of former royalists into London, and on 6 May he ordered, with John Venn*, to ensure the London militia committee enforce the ordinance for ejecting papists and delinquents from within the ‘lines of communication’.79CJ iv. 490b, 537a. Allein was also involved in religious matters, being named to a committee to draft ordinances on the settlement of a preaching ministry, the repair of churches and the replacement of delinquent ministers (7 Apr.), the revenues of St Paul’s Cathedral (7 May), and for the better observation of fast days (27 May).80CJ iv. 502a, 538b, 556b. On 3 June he was included in the committee of both Houses on scandalous offences.81CJ iv. 562b. Upholding the honour of Parliament was also a priority in this period, and on 17 April he was named to a committee of four (including Evelyn of Wiltshire and Hesilrige) to oversee the printing and distribution of a declaration vindicating Parliament’s activities in the war.82CJ iv. 512b, 513a. He remained eager to remove Scottish influence from English affairs, and on 1 June he joined Scawen and others on a committee to draft an answer to the Scottish commissioners concerning the withdrawal of their army, and the settlement of their arrears of pay.83CJ iv. 560b.

As his hostility to the Scots suggests, Allein remained a supporter of the Independent interest. Other hints can be gleaned from his committee appointments during the summer. On 13 June he was named to a committee to consider Lords’ proposals concerning the settlement of the militia throughout the kingdom; on 11 July he was appointed to a committee to investigate who was behind a London petition to the king; and on 5 September he was included in a committee to negotiate with the City authorities for a loan of £200,000 to pay off the Scots.84CJ iv. 576a, 615b, 616a, 663a. He was involved in measures to extract money from former royalists, being named to the committee on an ordinance for the sale of their estates (10 July), to committees to draft a commission to discover concealed estates (6 Aug.) and to consider who would be ‘excepted’ from pardon and their lands sold (11 Aug.).85CJ iv. 612b, 637b, 641b. The need to reconquer Ireland, now that the English war was at an end, was also pressing, On 30 July Allein was named to committees to negotiate the continuation of a loan for Irish affairs, and on 11 August he was appointed to a committee to treat with anyone who would lend further money for the cause.86CJ iv. 629b, 641b. Allein was among those tasked by the Commons on 1 Oct. with assisting the Army Committee in its deliberations on the future of the London militia committee.87CJ iv. 678b. On 3 October he was added to the committee on the reducing of the brigade under the Presbyterian colonel, Edward Massie*, and to be present at their disbandment.88CJ iv. 681b. He accompanied Edmund Ludlowe II* to Devizes immediately afterwards, for which service they were commended.89Ludlow, Mems. i. 141.

Allein had returned to the Commons by 3 November, and during the remainder of the year he was sent on several occasions to the excise commissioners to request loans (24 Nov., 4 Dec.), and to the common council to ask for more speedy collection of the assessment (4 Dec.).90CJ iv. 727b, 738a-b. He was also named to committees to inform the lord mayor of a fast day (3 Dec.) and to ask that action be taken against ‘tumultuous assesmblies’ within the City (5 Dec.).91CJ iv. 737a; v. 2b. There may have been a political edge to these interventions, and this can perhaps also be detected in his appointment, on 12 December, to a committee to investigate the publication of the Presbyterian tract, Jus Divinum.92CJ v. 11b. The Independent hegemony also brought other facets of Allein’s career during these weeks. On 14 December the Army Committee, dominated by Independents, ordered that the silver seized from the marquess of Worcester would be placed in Allein’s care, to be dispensed only by order of the committee or the Commons – and without the need to gain the consent of his fellow treasurers at war.93Adamson, ‘Employments of Robert Scawen’, 53. Allein’s professional advice was called upon in late December, when he was charged with finding a jewel suitable as a gift for the earl of Leven, on the departure of the Scottish army from English soil.94CJ v. 26b, 39b-40a, 81b-82a, 134b, 135b. He also took time to pursue his own interests, and was rewarded with two orders in January 1647, to satisfy his claim as a creditor of the 2nd earl of Cork (Sir Richard Boyle*) and for the passing of the account for his arrears as a commissioner in the North during 1643-4.95CJ v. 43a, 43b.

The Presbyterian ascendancy, 1647

On 25 January 1647 Allein was appointed to a committee to consider appeals by reduced officers against decisions by the Presbyterian-dominated Committee of Accounts, and the next day he was ordered to attend the Committee for Compounding to ask them to pay money assigned to disbanded officers by Parliament.96CJ v. 63a, 65b. Perhaps connected with the need to monitor the actions of this latter committee, in the early months of 1647 Allein again became an active within the Committee for Compounding, attending meetings in January, February, March and April, and in the latter month he also signed warrants.97SP23/3, p. 374; SP23/4, ff. 15-81; Eg. 2978, ff. 207, 209, 211, 214. On 6 February he was nominated as one of the new commissioners for compounding.98CJ v. 78a. Allein’s political allegiances can also be seen in his appointment to the committee on the ordinance for the sale of the earl of Worcester’s lands, with Oliver Cromwell as the main beneficiary.99CJ v. 74a. Also, on 27 February, he was among those ordered to take special care of raising money to re-deploy troops for the reduction of Ireland, which, at this stage, were likely to be commanded by Cromwell or another officer favourable to the Independents.100CJ v. 100b.

The growing influence of the Presbyterian faction in the next few weeks, and the decision by the Commons to try to force the disbandment of the New Model, and its redeployment to Ireland, put Allein in an awkward position, as he tried to juggle his responsibilities to the Independents and the City. On 27 March he was named to the committee to investigate the officers' petition to Fairfax for arrears and indemnity.101CJ v. 127b. On 2 April he was appointed to a committee, alongside such Presbyterians as Denzil Holles and Giles Grene, to request a loan for Ireland from London.102CJ v. 133a. He was ordered to draft an ordinance in answer to the petition of London apprentices for statutory holidays on 20 April but returned to army affairs at the beginning of May, with committees to approach the City for a further loan, and to consider the indemnity ordinance in which he was named as a member of the soon-to-be-established Committee for Indemnity.103CJ v. 148b, 160b, 166a, 168a, 174a. Allein was among the pro-Independent citizens excluded from the London militia committee when it was purged by the pro-Scottish party in the City, and on 7 May Allein, Thomas Atkyns*, John Venn, Rowland Wilson* and Isaac Penington*, were thanked by the Commons for their previous service with the committee.104CJ v. 166a.

Despite his obvious differences with the Presbyterians in the City and the Commons, Allein continued to fulfil his duties as army treasurer throughout June and July 1647. On 8 June, as the army threatened London, Allein was appointed alongside such staunch Presbyterians as Sir John Clotworthy* to draft an ordinance to provide £10,000 for soldiers engaged for the Irish service, a move widely regarded as an attempt to raise a force in the City to challenge the might of the New Model.105CJ v. 203a. Similarly, on 10 June he was sent, with Samuel Gott*, to the London militia committee, to request a regiment of the trained bands to guard Parliament, and the next day he was named to a committee to join with the militia committee to consider how to suppress ‘tumults’ by disbanded soldiers in the City.106CJ v. 205b, 207b. On 14 June he was again sent to the City to arrange for a guard on Parliament, and he was also named to a committee to draft an order for the disbursement of £5,000 between the reduced officers to encourage them to disperse quietly.107CJ v. 209b, 210b. Allein was named to a committee formed on 15 June to write to the parliamentary commissioners with the army on hearing of their failure to halt the army, and on 2 July he was chosen to write to the chairman of the Army Committee, Robert Scawen, to request his return to the House.108CJ v. 212a, 230a. Allein headed the nominations to a committee to amend the ordinance for raising horses on 8 July, and two days later was named to draft an ordinance to use up money remaining at Weavers' Hall for the Irish service.109CJ v. 236b, 240b. Allein is not mentioned again in the records of the House before the assault of the London apprentices on Parliament on 26 July. He was listed among those who fled to the New Model and signed their declaration of 4 August, though he had joined them only very recently, for he had been named to committees in the House on 2 August, to investigate the cause of the recent riots and to augment the powers of the ‘committee of safety’ (which had been set up in June to mobilse London against the army).110Rushworth, Hist. Collns. vii. 755; CJ v. 265a, 265b. This lends weight to Holles’s claim that Allein and Scawen had remained at Westminster in order to plot the ruin of the Presbyterians by delaying the dispatch of money to pay the New Model, ‘which was as great a blow to Parliament and City as could be given; for it served to keep the soldiers together, and unite them for marching up’ to occupy London.111Maseres Tracts i. 283.

Independent politics, 1647-8

On his return to Westminster after the army’s occupation of London, Allein was named to committees to investigate and declare null and void the legislation passed during the ‘forcing of the Houses’ (6 and 11 August), and on 13 August he was appointed to a sub-committee to proceed ‘under secrecy’ to identify the main supporters of the coup – a body made up exclusively of Independents, including his London allies, Penington and Venn.112CJ v. 269a, 271b-272a, 273a-b; LJ ix. 386a. Clement Walker* alleged that this sub-committee's brief was to investigate the activity of the leading Presbyterians in the House rather than the causes of the riots.113Walker, Com plete Hist. of Independency, 51. Allein was sent to thank the preachers at the day of thanksgiving at the end of the month, and, with an Independent majority back in control of the City, he was restored to his membership of the London militia committee on 2 September.114CJ v. 283b; Rushworth, Hist. Collns. vii. 798. In an ironic twist, on the same day Allein was named to a committee on the ordinance to prevent clipped money, even though one contemporary claimed that clipped moneys had become known as ‘allens’ on account of Allein’s fraudulent behaviour at the Customs House.115Walker, Independency, 169.

There is little evidence of Allein’s activity in the Commons during September and the first few weeks of October, although he was named to committees concerning the settling of accounts of wounded and dead soldiers (28 September) and to prepare a declaration on the assault on Parliament (1 October).116CJ v. 320a, 322a. He was recorded as absent ‘in servito’ at the call of the House on 9 October.117CJ v. 329b. Allein had returned to the Commons by 21 October, when he was named to a committee to consider propositions to the king on the issue of army arrears.118CJ v. 339a. On the following day, he was named to another committee on payment of arrears, and a few days later to a related committee, to consider the ordinance for the sale of bishops' lands, the proceeds going to pay the army.119CJ v. 340a, 344a-b. This was the start of Allein’s involvement in a series of major land sale projects, designed to revitalize the parliamentarian finances. The sale of bishops' lands brought him immediate personal benefits, as in September 1647 he acquired the manors of Waltham and Droxford in Hampshire, purchased jointly with his colleague Robert Reynolds*, for a combined purchase value of £15,675.120Bodl. Rawl. B239, pp. 1, 36, 54. This land acquisition gave Allein a stake in Hampshire affairs. In the wake of the King's escape from Hampton Court, on 12 November Allein was named to a committee of investigation, and a few weeks later he and Reynolds were nembers of the special commission of oyer and terminer at Winchester which sentenced Captain Burley to death for his ill-fated part in the escape, and received the thanks of the House for their ‘good service’ in the affair.121CJ v. 357a, 434a, 442a, 447b.

Despite such distractions, the payment of the army remained Allein’s main priority in the winter of 1647-8. On 13 November, Allein and Evelyn of Wiltshire were ordered to answer Fairfax's letter on proposals for army pay, on 8 December he was named to a committee to draw up an ordinance for the payment and disbandment of supernumerary forces, and on 23 December he and Scawen were appointed to a committee to inform Fairfax of the plan.122CJ v. 358b, 377b, 400a. On 1 January 1648 Allein was named to a committee to consider a paper brought from the army by Scawen, concerning free quarter.123CJ v. 414b. On 9 February he joined Reynolds and others on a committee to consider an additional ordinance for the sale of bishops’ lands, and to draft an ordinance to remove obstructions to their disposal.124CJ v. 460b. Other issues came a poor second, but Allein demonstrated his continued commitment to the maintenance of the ministry on 9 February, when he was named to the committee on the ordinance to improve tithe payments in London, and at the end of the month he was included in a committee to consider the ordinance for the stricter observation of the sabbath.125CJ v. 460b, 471a. On 4 March Allein was named to a committee on the accounts of the customs commissioners and was named to the committee of petitions four days later.126CJ v. 480a, 486a. On 23 March he was sent with Atkyns and Richard Salwey* to press an unwilling commo council to speed up collection of the assessment, an errand which he was destined to repeat two months later.127CJ v. 511a-b, 571a.

Allein’s political allegiances remained with the Independents in the spring of 1648. On 28 February it was said that Allein, Edmund Prideaux I, Cromwell and other radicals had met in a house in Fleet Street (perhaps Allein’s own house) to discuss new propositions for the king, designed to alienate him from the Scots.128Bodl. Clarendon 30, f. 134. The second civil war may have strengthened Allein’s connection with these men still further. In May, with the threat to London's safety posed by the uprising in Kent, he was sent to confer with the common council and the militia committee on the safety of Parliament and the City, and in June he was named to the committee to investigate the insurrection.129CJ v. 574a, 599b-600a. In the same month he and Reynolds were among those added to the Hampshire County Committee.130CJ v. 615a; LJ x. 354b. On 1 July, Allein and Scawen were among the members of the Army committee sent to attend the New Model outside Colchester, to see that the troops were paid from assessments levied locally, and he spent the rest of the summer in Essex and at Bury St Edmunds on the business of disbandment.131CJ v. 619b; LJ x. 355b-356a. Allein had returned to Westminster by the beginning of September, when he was named to committees to examine the members of the Essex committee held prisoner by the royalists, to justify the enlisting of horses in London, to request a £200,000 loan from the City, and to consider an ordinance for indemnity for rebellious naval officers and sailors who had returned to the parliamentarian camp.132CJ v. 696b-697a; vi. 3a, 9b, 21a. Allein was given 14 days leave to go into the country on 7 October and received his next appointment in the House only on 3 November, when he was named with Cornelius Holland* to draft an ordinance to ensure a maintenance for the children of the late Thomas Rainborowe*.133CJ vi. 69a. Later in the same month, Allein continued to busy himself with financial and military affairs: on 21 November he was made a commissioner in the ordinance for removing obstructions to the sale of bishops’ lands; on 22 November he was named to a committee to consider the bringing in of assessment arrears, and the drawing of the army into winter quarters; and on 1 December he was appointed to a committee to answer Fairfax’s letter demanding immediate payment for his troops.134CJ vi. 81b, 831-b, 92b.

Supporting the revolution, 1648-9

Allein was untouched by Pride’s Purge on 6 December, and there is no sign that his activity in the Commons lessened over the weeks of uncertainty that followed. He was ordered to give thanks to Joseph Caryl for his sermon before the House on 8 December, and on 11 December it was said that Allein was one of the ‘Independent beagles’ who spoke against the protestation of the secluded Members, denouncing it as ‘scandalous and seditious’.135CJ vi. 95a; Merc. Pragmaticus no. 38 (12-19 Dec. 1648), sig. Ddd4 (E476.35). On 13 December he reported from the Army Committee on the need for ammunition for Hurst Castle on the Hampshire coast, and on the same day he was named to a committee to bring in heads for a debate on the iniquities of the failed treaty of Newport.136CJ vi. 95b, 96b. On the following day he was named to the committee to ask Fairfax why members were prevented from attending the House, and on 19 December he was ordered to ensure that the estates of delinquents who had failed to pay fines be sequestered until they did.137CJ vi. 97a, 100b. There is no record of when Allein signed the dissent, but given his enthusiastic membership of the Rump, it has generally been accepted that he probably did so on 20 December.138Walker, Independency, 87; HMC Portland i, 487. On 21 Dec. Allein was appointed to the committee to investigate public treasuries, alongside Sir Henry Mildmay, Humphrey Edwardes and Thomas Scot I.139CJ vi. 102a. On 23 December he was named to four committees, including those to consider a petition from the City of London (with special care of the matter being given to Allein, Wilson and Nicholas Love) and to consider how to ‘proceed in justice’ against the King.140CJ vi. 102b, 103a, 103b.

Allein was named to three committees for the establishment of the high court of justice, on 29 December and 3 January, and as one of the members of the court attended 14 sittings of the trial from 17 until 27 January, and he was present at the sentencing of the king.141CJ vi. 106a, 110b, 112b; Rushworth, Hist. Collections vii. 1416. He did not sign the death warrant but other evidence suggests that he supported the final outcome. On 16 January he was one of four MPs chosen to make an inventory of the king’s goods, and the next day he was appointed to the committee on the resulting ordinance.142CJ vi. 119b, 120b. On 31 January he was named to the committee to consider what to do with the king’s body, and on 3 February he was appointed to a committee to consider the printing of ‘seditious’ accounts of the king’s trial.143CJ vi. 127a, 131b. According to evidence given after the Restoration, Allein supported Cromwell's intervention against John Downes's* attempt to declare against the sentence, and it was further alleged that Allein had been over-heard saying, ‘that he had some time suspected Mr Downes to be for the King’.144HMC 7th Rep. 158a, 159a.

In late December and early January, Allein continued to be a prominent figure in the affairs of the Committee for Compounding. He again reported on delinquents who had failed to pay their fines on 29 December, and was named to the committee that considered the report, and on 1 January he was appointed to a committee to consider the outstanding charges on the Committee for Compounding and other treasuries, and how they might be satisfied.145CJ vi. 106b, 107b. On 6 January he was again ordered to report from the Compounding Committee, and on 8 January he was appointed to the committee on an ordinance to arrange for composition fines in the northern counties to be assigned for the payment of forces disbanding there.146CJ vi. 113a, 113b-114a. Allein’s involvement in compounding in the Commons was not matched by assiduous attendance at Goldsmiths’ Hall, however: in the three months after the Purge, he only attended once, on 11 January.147SP23/5, f. 43v. With the collapse of Presbyterian control over the City of London following the Purge, Allein was able to assert some influence over the affairs of the capital. This can be seen in an order of Fairfax, issued on 9 January, that forced delinquents within the lines had to secure a licence to remain from either Samuel Moyer* or Allein.148Rushworth, Hist. Collns. vii. 1387. Allein was issuing such licences three days later.149Staffs. RO, D868/2/56. In the Commons, Allein worked to reduce the power of the lord mayor and aldermen. On 15 January Allein and Augustine Garland* were given charge of the consideration of a petition of the common council in the absence of the Lord Mayor, and on 31 January Allein was named to the committee to consider a bill to allow further such independent action by common councilmen, and on 2 February he was named to a committee on ordinances for the militias of Westminster and the London surburbs.150CJ vi. 117b-118a, 127a, 129b. In later months, Allein was able to return to the militia committee, and in the City elections at the end of the year, he was elected to the aldermanic bench.151CJ vi. 329b.

Allein’s experience as treasurer at war and compounding commissioner made him an obvious choice for the many revenue raising schemes in the spring of 1649. He was added to the committee for excise and the Committee of Navy and Customs (10 February), and was named to the new committee to regulate the mint and prepare stamps for new coinage.152CJ vi. 137b, 138b. Allein reported on the financial state of the committee at Goldsmiths' Hall on 10 February, he was named to a committee on the charges on the Compounding Committee on 12 March, and reported on the same matter on 21 April.153CJ vi. 137b, 162b, 191b. He was named to committees to draft the bills for the sale of crown lands and fee-farm rents (24 Feb., 9 Mar.) and to the committee on the bill for a public accounts committee on 2 March.154CJ vi. 150b, 160a-b, 162b. On 12 April Allein was appointed to a committee to request a £120,000 loan from the City for the Irish service, but, with the City hesitating over security for such a large sum, Allein became involved in raising money by means of the sale of deans and chapter lands.155CJ vi. 185a. On 30 April he and John Corbet* were ordered to draft instructions for the treasurers handling the proceeds, and Allein was later sent to inform the trustees of votes concerning the sale.156CJ vi. 198b, 206b In April and May, Allein was active as treasurer-at-war and advised the Council of State on financial matters, including the financing of the navy.157CSP Dom. 1649-50, pp. 109, 127, 132. In the same period, Allein was publicly criticized for his part in the sale of the king’s personal goods, and especially the crown jewels. With Cromwell, he was portrayed as the chief beneficiary of the valuation: ‘Now what are become of those excellent jewels’, asked Mercurius Pragmaticus, ‘you may do well to enquire of Frank Allein the goldsmith, who may chance to help you to a sight of them in Sir Whimsy Mildmay’s [ie. Sir Henry Mildmay*] jewel house, or Nol Cromwell’s cabinet, among other precious scraps pared out of the public’.158Merc. Pragmaticus (1-8 May 1649), Sig. C2v (E.554.12). It was even alleged that these men, ‘having plundered the best jewels out of the old crown, they are to be put into a new one by Frank Allein the goldsmith; to which if Nol please to add the rubies in his nose, it must needs make a very glorious headpiece’.159Merc. Pragmaticus (8-15 May 1649), Sig. Dv (E.555.14). There was some truth behind these slights, not least when it came to the friendly relationship between Allein and Cromwell at this time. At the end of April, Allein joined John Disbrowe*, John Thurloe* and others as trustees for lands in Hampshire, Gloucestershire and Monmouthshire included in the settlement on the marriage of Richard Cromwell*.160Hunts RO, Cromwell-Bush 731/27.

Apart from his connection with Cromwell and his family, Allein’s political allegiances in the early days of the Rump are difficult to discern. For example, he acted as a teller for the first time in his parliamentary career on 17 May when he partnered the republican, Arthur Hesilrige*, on a tied vote concerning a property dispute involving Sir John Danvers*.161CJ vi. 211a. Yet the very next day he joined the Presbyterian William Purefoy I* as teller in favour of considering tithes at the probate committee, a move that reveals his sympathies with religious conservatism.162CJ vi. 211b. Subsequent references suggest that Allein was broadly supportive of the regime, but critical of its narrow radicalism. On 8 June he was sent to thank Dr John Owen* for his sermon on the day of thanksgiving for the defeat of the Leveller mutiny, and on the same day he was named to a committee to thank the City's newly purged government for a banquet lately given in honour of Parliament.163CJ vi. 226b, 227b. Yet his opposition to radicalism went much further than that of Cromwell and his military freinds. Allein was clearly opposed to attempts to stop more MPs returning to the House, and in the vote of 9 June was teller with Richard Salwey, winning a narrow majority against a motion (supported by Thomas Harrison I and John Hutchinson) to exclude MPs who refused to acknowledge the high court of justice.164CJ vi. 228a.

During the summer of 1649, Allein's time was spent sorting out of Parliament’s tangled finances. He was appointed to a committee to consider former ordinances on the excise on 11 June, and on 16 June he and Nicholas Lechmere were ordered to draft a bill concerning the £400,000 in outstanding charges against the excise and Goldsmith's Hall.165CJ vi. 228b, 235a. In the same month Allein reported the business of the Scottish financier, Sir William Dick, whose debts incurred in the public service had led to bankruptcy, and he was named to committees to grant lands on John Bradshawe* and Philip Skippon*.166CJ vi. 235b, 237a, 239a, 258a. On 27 June he joined Richard Salwey and Denis Bond as a committee to receive the accounts of the treasurers at Goldsmiths’ Hall, and on 4 July he was added to a committee to consider how to satisfy loans on the public faith.167CJ vi. 244a, 250a. On the same day he and his London ally, Isaac Penington, were named to a committee to negotiate a loan of £150,000 from the City to fund Cromwell’s Irish expedition.168CJ vi. 249b-250a. By 6 July Allein was again concentrating on reforming abuses, this time the counterfeiting and clipping of money, and later in the month he was named to committees on the sale of crown lands, and was teller with Denis Bond against the appointment of Bradshawe as chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster.169CJ vi. 251b, 254a, 258b, 262a. Perhaps connected with the latter, on 2 August Allein, Penington and others were named to a committee to consider a bill to regulate the election of officers of the commonwealth.170CJ vi. 273b. Allein’s association with the conservative Dorset member, Denis Bond, can also be seen on 4 August, when they were tellers in favour of the second reading of a bill to establish courts to settle disputes in probate, marriage and other matters formerly the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts.171CJ vi. 274b-275a. Allein’s name was absent from the Journals for most of September and the whole of October, reappearing on 8 November, when he reported from the committee on obstructions to the sale of dean and chapter lands.172CJ vi. 321a.

Rump politics, 1649-51

Allein continued to be involved in financial affairs during the winter months of 1649-50. On 23 November he was named to a committee to consider the security of debts charged on the excise, and was given care of the matter, alongside John Corbett and Thomas Hussey II.173CJ vi. 325a. In December he attended the Council of State in its financial deliberations and discussions concerning the coinage.174CSP Dom. 1649-50, pp. 420, 423, 438. On 17 January 1650 he was named to the revived committee on fee-farm rents, on 7 February he was appointed to the committee on a bill for removing obstructions to the sale of crown lands, and on 18 February he was given care (with Hussey II and John Weaver) of a committee to consider assessment ordinances.175CJ vi. 348a, 358b, 368a. During this period he was also appointed to two committees on the subscription of the Engagement across the whole nation (9 and 27 Nov.), and on 23 February he was named to the committee to draft a bill giving officers of the commonwealth more time to subscribe.176CJ vi. 321b, 326b, 370b. Allein was becoming involved in the Rump's attempts to support the church. He was named to the committee on the propagation of the gospel on 20 December; he was named to a committee on the bill for providing preaching ministers in Bristol on 15 February; and headed the list of nominees to consider an additional bill for the maintenance of the ministry on 15 March.177CJ vi. 336a, 365b, 382b. The flip side of this was the need to counter the rise of religious and social radicalism. Allein and Philip Skippon* told for the minority in favour of passing the first clause of the adultery bill without amendment (26 Apr.); he was appointed to a committee ‘to consider of a way for suppression of obscene, licentious and impious practices used by persons under pretence of liberty of religion’ (14 June); and he was named to a committee to consider laws for suppressing blasphemy (24 June).178CJ vi. 404b, 423b, 430a-b. He was added to the Committee for Plundered Ministers on 4 July.179CJ vi. 437a.

Allein remained preoccupied with financial matters during the spring and summer of 1650. He was first named to a committee on the bill to regulate trade and appoint commissioners on 16 March, and to the committee on the bill to create one general treasury, with a commission to manage it, on 18 April.180CJ vi. 383a-b, 400a. These formed part of an wider attempt to rationalise the Commonwealth’s financial institutions, which included the abolition of the Committee for Compounding and the creation of a non-parliamentary commission in its place. Allein continued to be active in the confiscation and sale of property for a few weeks more. On 6 April he was named to a committee to consider a bill for the sale of delinquents’ estates; on 18 April he was appointed to a committee to consider impropriations owned by deans and chapters; and on 23 April he joined Hesilrige as teller in favour of hearing a claim of money secured on the proceeds of the sale of dean and chapter lands.181CJ vi. 393a-b, 400b, 402b. Thereafter, economic activity – and the taxes levied on it – appear to have claimed Allein’s attention. On 25 April he was named to a committee on a bill to prevent the export of coin and bullion, being given care of the matter with Richard Salwey.182CJ vi. 403b. On 20 June he was added to the committee on a bill for appointing commissioners for the excise, and a week later he was teller on a report from the Committee of Navy and Customs concerning irregular dealing by the East India Company.183CJ vi. 427a, 433b. On 9 July Allein was teller against allowing the commissioners to hold other salaried employment.184CJ vi. 438b.

During the summer, Allein was briefly involved in Irish and Scottish affairs. On 2 May he was teller against transferring the powers of the Irish committees to the Council of State, and on 29 May he was named to the committee to consider a suitable land grant to Cromwell, newly arrived from Ireland.185CJ vi. 408b, 417b. On 25 June he was among the MPs chosen to attend Fairfax after his refusal to command the expedition against the Scots, and on 9 July he was named to a committee to draw up a narrative of the recent victories in Ireland and to declare a day of thanksgiving.186CJ vi. 431b, 438a. On 23 July he was named to a committee on a bill to prohinbit trade between England and Scotland during the hostilities.187CJ vi. 444b. The need to raise money and men for these campaigns was pressing. On 28 August Allein was ordered, with Salwey and James Nelthorp*, to take special care of raising money by loan on any security, and on 6 Sept. was named to consider a bill to encourage voluntary engagement for the service of Parliament.188CJ vi. 459b, 463b. In the final months of 1650, Allein turned his attention back to London. On 23 October he was appointed to a committee on a bill for the repair of highways in the Tower hamlet, and on 24 December he and Atkyns told for the majority against voting to void common council elections in Dowgate ward where two former royalists had been returned.189CJ vi. 486b, 514b.

Allein began the new year of 1651 by being appointed a commissioner to receive claims against the sale of delinquents' estates (24 January) and he was named to a committee to draft a bill for grievances against the bill for the national militia (28 January), but on his election to the Council of State on 10 February his activity in the Commons declined and he did not receive another committee appointment until the beginning of April.190CJ vi. 528a, 528b, 532b, 558a. He made only occasional appearances in the House, as on 28 March, when he was teller for the minority in a vote concerning the bill for giving security for the sale of crown lands.191CJ vi. 554a. In his first months as a councillor, Allein was added to the committees for Irish and Scottish affairs and the mint, supervised the provision of plate for the ambassadors to the Netherlands, and advised on such matters as the preservation of timber and the stores kept at the Tower.192CSP Dom. 1651, pp. 44, 50, 63, 66-7, 69, 129. Allein's membership of the Council of State also saw him nominated to two parliamentary committees concerned with the Portuguese treaty, on 9 and 10 April.193CJ vi. 558a, 560a. During the spring, his other committee appointments included those to draft the preamble to the assessment bill (15 Apr.), to consider the bill to void titles conferred by the King (16 Apr.), and to consider a petition from his old patron, the earl of Northumberland (25 Apr.).194CJ vi. 561a, 562b, 565b-566a, 567a. Otherwise, his time in the Commons was largely taken up with legislation on the sale of delinquents' estates. On 14 May he was teller against setting a quorum of five for the trustees under the bill for sale of forfeited estates, and on 16 May he was chosen to supervise the election of the trustees and other officers in the same bill.195CJ vi. 574a, 575a. When the bill was passed on 16 July, Allein was listed as one of the commissioners for removing obstructions to the sale.196CJ vi. 604a-605a. The continuing war with the Scots, and fears of English Presbyterians supporting their north led to Allein’s re-engagement in London affairs in the late summer. On 15 July he was teller with Vane II against delying the execution of the conspirator, Christopher Love, despite a petition from the City.197CJ vi. 604a. On 27 August he was named, alongside Penington and Atkyns, to a committee to thank the lord mayor and common council for arranging a muster of the trained bands, and on 30 August he reported to the Commons the plans of the London militia to hold another such rendezvous.198CJ vii. 6b, 9a. His parliamentary activities dovetailed with his conciliar duties in the late summer. He was appointed to a committee to attend the common council to arrange for the defence of London on 11 August; added to the committee to consider the safety of the commonwealth on 12 August; and named to a committee to control entry to London on 27 August.199CSP Dom. 1651, pp. 315, 322, 374.

Resisting reform, 1651-3

After the final defeat of the royalists at Worcester, Allein seems to have shared the general sense of euphoria. He was named to parliamentary committees to draft a bill to establish dominion over occupied Scotland (9 Sept.), to draft a letter to Cromwell to consider the fate of the well-affected of Worcester who had suffered during the battle (10 September), and to establish a day of public thanksgiving (19 Sept.).200CJ vii. 14a, 15a, 20a. In the council chamber, he was involved in the disposal of Scottish prisoners (13 and 16 Sept.) and the choice of hangings and other furnishings that would be kept back for the use of the state (25-26 Sept.).201CSP Dom. 1651, pp. 426, 431, 447, 449. This burst of enthusiasm was followed by a period of inactivity, even disillusion. On 24 November Allein told with Henry Marten* against proceeding with Council of State elections that day, but, on the decision of the House to proceed, he was nominated to count the votes.202CJ vii. 42a-b. Allein was not re-elected to the council of state, although he continued to back moves for limited reform of the administration. On 26 December he and his fellow treasurers at war submitted a petition to Parliament, possibly to have their accounts drawn up.203CJ vii. 58a. On the same day he was named to consider the establishment of the non-parliamentary commission on law reform, later known as the ‘Hale commission’.204CJ vii. 58b. On 19 March 1652 he was added to the committee to receive the finsings of the new law commissioners.205CJ vii. 107b. Such appointments may not have equated to unequivocal support for reform, however, and Allein shared Bond’s reluctance to support change at critical moments.206Worden, Rump, 110n, 116. When it came to religious and moral issues, Allein was also supportive of limited changes, but without giving ground to the sectaries.207Worden, Rump, 270. On 10 February he was named to a committee on a petition of ‘divers ministers of the gospel’, concerning the propogation of religion, and on 19 February he was appointed to the committee to consider charges against the adulterous MP, Gregory Clement*.208CJ vii. 86a-b, 93a. On 1 June when he was ordered to draft a declaration on the importance of observing the fast days, and at the end of the month he was named to a committee to consider how to deal with conforming papists.209CJ vii. 137b, 147a. On 9 July, Allein joined Sir James Harington* as teller, winning a narrow majority against the demolition of collegiate churches (as well as cathedrals) to satisfy those who had advanced money upon the public faith, and against the melting of church bells for naval ordnance.210CJ vii. 152b.

Allein’s overriding concern during 1652 was once again finance. On 11 March he was named to a committee to consider an additional bill on the sale of fee-farm rents; on 30 March he was appointed to a committee on a bill to appoint new commissioners for the removal of obstructions to the sale of forfeited estates; and on 1 April he was teller in favour of the nomination of Sir William Roberts* as one of the commissioners.211CJ vii. 104a, 112a, 113a. In addition, on 6 April he was named to a committee to consider a petition relating to the sale of bishops’ lands.212CJ vii. 115a. On 2 June Allein was one of the MPs chosen to consider how the revenues of the commonwealth might be improved.213CJ vii. 138b. On 15 July, he was named to a committee to consider a second bill for the sale of forfeited estates, reporting from the same on 20 and 21 July, and on 27 July he was named to a committee to attend the compounding commissioners on the same matter.214CJ vii. 154b, 156b, 157a, 158b. Also on 27 July, Allein was named to a committee to reform the financial system, bringing the different treasuries together, and improving their management, under the guidance of Richard Salwey.215CJ vii. 159a. On 4 August he was made a treasurer for forfeited estates.216A. and O.; CSP Dom. 1651-2, p. 355. In August Allein was also appointed a committee on a bill to satisfy the Irish Adventurers, and he again reported on the additional bill for the sale of forfeited estates.217CJ vii. 161b-162a, 166a. In October Allein was made a temporary member of the Committee for Revenue, when it considered the sale of the parks at Hampton Court.218CJ vii. 191b. His efforts in the House were complemented by his role as adviser to the Council of State, which he attended in September, when the retrenchment of the armed forces was discussed, and in November, when the state of the treasuries was considered.219CSP Dom. 1651-2, pp. 400, 473.

On 11 November, perhaps influenced by his own heavy workload, Allein joined Hesilrige as teller in a narrow victory against a motion to suspend the order of the House not to sit on Saturdays and Mondays.220CJ vii. 214a. In the days that followed, he was named to committee on a bill concerning judges’ salaries, and he was ordered to bring in another proviso on the additional bill for the sale of forfeited estates.221CJ vii. 215b, 216b. Allein was re-elected to the Council of State on 24 November, polling in second place with 67 votes and he was named as treasury inspector, with Denis Bond, John Downes and Cornelius Holland* in a new ordinance passed on 4 December and confirmed six days later.222CJ vii. 220b-221a, 225b; A. and O. These new jobs took up much of Allein’s time during the winter of 1652-3.223CSP Dom. 1652-3, pp. 1, 9, 19, 26, 48, 84, 192; Notts. RO, DD/12/1. As a result, Allein’s involvement in Parliament was relatively undistinguished. He was named to the committee on a bill to explain the act for relief of tender consciences on 6 January, and the committee for the sale of royal forests two days later, and he was teller with Hesilrige in a compounding case on 14 January.224CJ vii. 244a, 245a, 248a. On 2 February he was named to the committee on a bill for county registers, and on 10 February he joined another committee to consider bribery in the nomination of registers.225CJ vii. 253a, 257b. Over the next few weeks he reported from the commissioners for inspecting the treasuries (24 February) and from the committee to amend the additional bill on the sale of forfeited estates (1 March), but thereafter his attendance faltered, and there is no mention of him in the Journals from early March until 8 April, when he was included in the committee to give an audience to the Swedish ambassador.226CJ vii. 262a, 263a-b, 276b. His attendance at the Council of State also became sporadic, although he was appointed to a committee to attend the lord mayor to discuss the London magazine on 30 March, and he was included in committee for the Tower and the security of the council chamber in early April.227CSP Dom. 1652-3, pp. 242, 261, 273. His last recorded parliamentary appointment, on 19 April, was to the committee to consider a petition from Sir Edward Bayntun*.228CJ vii. 280a.

Allein's parliamentary career ended as controversially as it had begun, when he was singled out for particular criticism in Cromwell's final speech before dissolving the Rump on 20 April 1653. On his entry to the Commons, the general was met by the alderman, who ‘told him that it was not yet gone so far, but all things might be restored again; and that if the soldiers were commanded out of the House, and the mace returned, the public affairs might go on in their former course’. This intervention did nothing to mollify Cromwell, who in reply ‘charged him with an account of some hundred thousand pounds, for which he threatened to question him, he having been long treasurer for the army, and in a rage committed him to custody of one of the musketeers’.229Ludlow, Mems. i. 354. The next day it was reported that Allein was among a number of MPs ‘secured’ by the military.230Hatton Corresp. i. 7. His imprisonment was, however, short lived. News of his release had become common knowledge by 23 April, and although he joined other aldermen in promoting a petition for the restoration of the Rump in May, no further proceedings were initiated against him, either for fraud or for dissent.231Ludlow, Mems. i. 354-5; Clarke Pprs. iii. 2, 6. He was stripped of his position as treasury inspector on 18 May, and he lost his lodgings in Whitehall on 9 June.232CSP Dom. 1652-3, pp. 335, 394. Otherwise, he was left to enjoy his wealth in retirement, establishing his main residence as the magnificent Caron House in Lambeth.

Final years, 1653-8

His was an active retirement, however. He was appointed to numerous local commissions, was a magistrate on the Middlesex and Surrey benches, and in December 1655 he was chosen as one of the commissioners for securing the peace in Hampshire, working under Major-general William Goffe*.233C231/6, pp. 152, 266; TSP iv. 363. In 1656 he was made a governor of Westminster School, and signed a warrant with other governors in January 1657.234SP28/292, unfol. When residing in Hampshire in August 1657, he used his influence to ensure that the admiralty reimbursed the local carters who had brought captured Spanbish silver from Portsmouth to London the previous autumn.235CSP Dom. 1657-8, pp. 85-6. Allein died in September 1658, and as he and his wife were buried together at St Mary, Lambeth on 6 October, the cause may have been an infectious disease. An unofficial epitaph was provided in a newsletter a few days later, ‘Alderman Allein and his wife were both buried together last week – a mighty funeral, and he died a very rich man. How it was gotten, God knows’.236St Mary at Lambeth par. reg.; HMC 15th Rep., 146.

As Allein died without children, the main beneficiaries of his will, made in February 1658, were his brother, John, who was left the manor of East Meon; his nephew, Francis Edgeley of Northamptonshire, who was to receive Droxford and Waltham if he changed his surname to ‘Allein’; and his step children, notably his wife's daughter Mary and her husband John Barkstead* to whom he bequeathed the manors of Acton and Ealing. He made charitable bequests to the poor of the parishes of St Dunstan-in-the-West, Lambeth, Droxford and East Meon, and granted £200 each to St Thomas's and St Bartholomew's hospitals. He remembered several ministers, including Joseph Caryl, Ralph Veilling and John Rawlinson, in whose hands he left £300 to be distributed to persons considered by them to the godly. He left £20 in plate to the Goldsmiths’ Company, the only reference to his former life.237CSP Dom. 1657-8, pp. 85-6; HMC 5th Rep., 146; GLRO, St Mary at Lambeth par. reg.; PROB11/295, ff. 121-123v.