The story of Allens begins in London in 1800 with the birth of its founder, George.
George's family was upper middle class. His father, Richard, was a highly regarded physician whose patients included the Prince of Wales, later crowned King George IV. He also conducted a business selling medicines.
Richard had twelve children – four from his first marriage and eight with Mary, his second wife, only five of whom survived infancy. Unfortunately, Richard was susceptible to living beyond his means. Following his death in 1806, Mary and her young family were left with little means of support. George was just five years old.
Richard Allen
Mary Collicott
Three years later, Mary married Thomas Collicott, the manager of Richard's medicine business.
Between them, they brought eight children to the marriage, five Mary's and three Thomas's. If Mary had seen Thomas as providing security and stability for their family, she was soon disappointed. Maybe it was the cost of raising a large family in London that led Thomas to place forged duty stamps on his medicine bottles. While his motivation is opaque, the consequences were not. Thomas was tried at the Old Bailey on 15 January 1812, found guilty and sentenced to be hanged.
With characteristic resourcefulness, Mary promptly sought an audience at the palace, where she used her first husband’s connections to seek leniency from the Duke of Kent. The sentence was remitted from death to transportation, and in 1813 Thomas sailed to the colony of New South Wales as a convict aboard the Earl Spencer.
Sir Robert Wigram, a friend of Richard's, supported the family during these difficult and uncertain times. He was a British merchant, shipbuilder and politician who had trained as a physician under George’s great-uncle. George never forgot Sir Robert’s kindness, and would later name both his first child and his house in his honour.
Sir Robert provided the money for Mary and some of the children to follow Thomas to a new life in Sydney. On 19 January 1816, Mary arrived in Port Jackson aboard the Mary Ann, along with fifteen-year-old George, two of his siblings and the three children from Thomas's previous marriage. Among the family's few possessions was a letter of introduction to Governor Lachlan Macquarie. This letter profoundly influenced the course of young George’s life and led to the creation of Australia's most enduring law firm – Allens.