William Shepherd Allen was an English Liberal

Liberal Party (UK)

The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...

 politician, who also farmed in New Zealand.

Allen was born at Manchester

Manchester

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

, the son of William Allen and his wife Maria Shepherd. His father was J.P. for Staffordshire, residing at Woodhead Hall, Cheadle

Cheadle, Staffordshire

Cheadle is a small market town near Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, with a population of 12,158 according to the 2001 census. It is roughly from the city of Stoke-on-Trent, north of Birmingham and south of Manchester...

. Allen was educated at Wadham College, Oxford

Wadham College, Oxford

Wadham College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, located at the southern end of Parks Road in central Oxford. It was founded by Nicholas and Dorothy Wadham, wealthy Somerset landowners, during the reign of King James I...

.
He was a devout Methodist and wrote several religious papers.

Allen was elected as MP

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 for Newcastle-under-Lyme

Newcastle-under-Lyme (UK Parliament constituency)

Newcastle-under-Lyme is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.- History :...

 in 1865. He held the seat until 1886. In later life he shared his time between Woodhead Hall in England and his property Annandale near Morrinsville

Morrinsville

Morrinsville is a town in the Waikato region of New Zealand's North Island. The land for the town and surrounding farmland was purchased from Wirimu Tamehana,the king maker prior to the NZ land wars of the 1860s. The land then was very swampy...

 in New Zealand.
In 1890

New Zealand general election, 1890

The New Zealand general election of 1890 was one of New Zealand's most significant. It marked the beginning of party politics in New Zealand with the formation of the First Liberal government, which was to enact major welfare, labour and electoral reforms, including giving the vote to women.It was...

 he was elected MP for Te Aroha

Te Aroha (New Zealand electorate)

Te Aroha was a parliamentary electorate in the Waikato region of New Zealand from 1890 to 1893.-Geographic coverage:The electorate was based on the town of Te Aroha. In the 1890 elections, polling booths were also in Greerton , Katikati and Paeroa.-History:The electorate was first formed for the...

 in New Zealand, but his election was disallowed on petition in 1891.

He died at Cheadle at the age of 83.

Allen married Elizabeth Penelope Candlish, the daughter of John Candlish

John Candlish

John Candlish was a British glass bottle manufacturer and Liberal Party politician.-Early life:Candlish was born in Tarset, Northumberland, the eldest son of John Candlish, a farmer, and his wife, Mary, née Robson...

 MP for Sunderland

Sunderland (UK Parliament constituency)

Sunderland was a borough constituency of the House of Commons, created by the Reform Act 1832 for the 1832 general election. It elected two Members of Parliament by the bloc vote system of election until it was split into single-member seats of Sunderland North and Sunderland South for the 1950...

. Their eldest son William

William Allen (National Liberal politician)

William Allen was politician in England who served as a Member of Parliament from 1892 to 1900, and — after a gap of more than thirty years — from 1931 to 1935....

 was later MP for Newcastle-under-Lyme.

Another son, Colonel Sir Stephen Shepherd Allen

Stephen Shepherd Allen

Colonel Sir Stephen Shepherd Allen was a New Zealand lawyer, farmer, local body politician, and Mayor of Morrinsville. He served in World War I and in the Territorial Army, and was Administrator of the colony of Western Samoa 1928–1931....

, (1882–1964) was a New Zealand lawyer, farmer, local body politician, and Mayor of Morrinsville

Morrinsville

Morrinsville is a town in the Waikato region of New Zealand's North Island. The land for the town and surrounding farmland was purchased from Wirimu Tamehana,the king maker prior to the NZ land wars of the 1860s. The land then was very swampy...

. He served in World War I and in the Territorial Army, and was Administrator of the colony of Western Samoa (now Samoa

Samoa

Samoa , officially the Independent State of Samoa, formerly known as Western Samoa is a country encompassing the western part of the Samoan Islands in the South Pacific Ocean. It became independent from New Zealand in 1962. The two main islands of Samoa are Upolu and one of the biggest islands in...

) 1928-31.

Publications

• The Teaching Of Christ With Respect To The Future Punishment Of The Wicked
• The present position of Wesleyan Methodism : the causes of its decreasing numbers, and the means which must be adopted to secure an increase

External links