Allinson, William, 1766-1841

During the Early Republic, the Society of Friends struggled to preserve its peculiar identity in the midst of a rapidly changing America. Conflict between the Society and the world led many Quakers into reformist activism, and others into introspective withdrawal, and conflict within its own ranks ultimately produced the schisms of the 1820s through 1840s. Confronted with such turmoil, few Quakers remained unaffected.

The son of attorney Samuel Allinson (1739-1791), and a member of a prominent West Jersey Quaker family, William Allinson became a weighty member of the Burlington (N.J.) Monthly Meeting at the turn of the 19th century. Still a bachelor at age 40, he envisioned his life as intimately bound up with the affairs of the Society, and devoted his time to his religion as an elder of the meeting, clerk of the Monthly Meeting (1798-1807), representative to the Quarterly and Yearly Meetings, and as minister, advisor, and member of innumerable committees. "I do not desire a Life of Ease," he claimed, "& it is very evident it is not for me; but could I choose, it would be most agreeable to be best fitted & most Employd in religious services" (1803 April 26).

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