The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1875-05-25
For the Register.
Ethan Aliens Age and Family.

The entry copied from the town records
of Litchfeld, Conn, by which the place
of Aliens nativity is considered settled,
is in terms explicit and unmistakable.
viz: "Ethan Allen, ye son of Joseph AL
len and Mary bis wife was born January
We 10th, 1881" But orators and writ
ers fall into the same error, at once
they all fall together-when they reason
that this makes the popular champion and
leader thirty.eight years old in l775,
when Ticondercga was taken. Kilbourne,
in his History Of Litchfeld, renders the
date Of the year accurately as 1878; !;
that is, before the change Of STYLE by Act
of Parliament in 1852, the legal year
commenced with March 25th, and 1877
in public records, for nearly three months
was but part of 1873, in which latter
year, as now reck oned, Aliens birth was
included Adding also eleven days, as
then required by the New Style IN adapt
ing the Julian TO the Gregorian calendar,
the day Of his birth would read, in the
modern reckoning, January 81, 1873.
The maIriaee OF his parents from the
record at Woodbury., Conn, is given
thus: "Joseph Allen and Mary Baker
we're Joined together in marriage by Rev.
erend Mr.. Anthony Stoddar (Stoddard)
March II, 1861" (Cothren's Ancient
Woodbury., vol. |, p. ABB
General Aliens first marriage was
recorded by Rev. Daniel Brinsmade at
Judea parish, Woodbury., thus: (see
Cothren) Ethan Allen, of Cornwall, and
Mary Brownson, of Roxbury, were mar.
ried June "a. l762.-4s-" His second
marriage was copied by Rev. Zadock
Thompson from the Vermont Gazette Of
February 81, 1884, into his biographical
lecture on the Allen family, delivered at
Burlington, March 16, 1852, found in
Miss Hemenway's Vermont Historical
Magazine. vol. |. p. $50. "thus pompous.
ly announced :" married at Westmins.
ter, on the 9th Of February the Honorable
General Ethan Allen tc the amiable Mrs.
Lydia Buchanan, lady possessing in an
eminent degree every graceful qualiica-
ton requisite to render the hymenel
bonds ielicitous." The lady's name, says
MIR Thompson, was not Lydia but Fanny.
The General was forty-six at the time
Of .L'~ ~--.---, a. ,-Is t--o-.--fanr
five years older than Ticonderoga, Fort
Carlton, when the second time taken.
In note added by Thompson and
given by Miss Hemenway, it is.said, by
memorandum in Ethan Aliens hand.writ-
ing, in copy of the Oracles of Reason,
it would appear that ETHAN Allen was
born Jan. 2l, 1889; Fanny, his second
wife. April 4. 1760," &C., the birth of
three children being recorded. The dis
crepancy Of one year between this personal
entry and that of the record of births at
Ltchfeld is hardly noticeable in the cir
cumstances, but sets against the common
error we were attempting to correct.
General Allen died February 10, 1888,
at the age of ffty-one, two years after the
removal Of his family from Sunderland,
in Bennington county, to Burlington,
Mary Brownson, his first wife, died at
Sunderland early in 1888, having lost a
son, Joseph, eleven years old, and leaving
three daughters, two of whom mar.
ried well and resided at Burlington. The
sons of Mrs. Fanny Allen, Hannibal V
and Ethan A., became officers in the
United States army, the latter leaving al
his death son of his own name, who re.
sides now at New York. Fanny, hel
daughter, born Nov. 13, 1884, became Q
nun of the Hotel Dieu, in Montreal
early in life. Mrs. Allen became the wife
of Mr.. Jabez Penniman, of Colchester
near Burlington, where she died mor'
than forty years since.