Ralph Allen

Ralph Allen ( * 1693 in St Columb Major in Cornwall, † June 29, 1764 in Bath ) was a British entrepreneur. Together with Richard " Beau " Nash and the architect John Wood the Elder he was essential to the expansion of Bath to the fashionable spa resort in the 18th century at.

Life

Ralph Allen was born 1693 in St Columb Major in Cornwall. He came from a humble background; his parents ran a small inn in St Blazey. His grandmother led the post office in St Columb Major, where he has helped out as a teenager. His skill and his cunning fell on a post supervisor, so he 1708 a job at the post office of Exeter received and 1710 deputy postmaster of Bath was. At age 19, he was in 1712 Postmaster of Bath.

At this time, the postal routes led all over London, and by this delay and corruption by the postal service was slow and unreliable. 1720 Allen leased from the General Post Office, the Cross and Bye Posts and introduced a new system of direct postal links in England and Wales. This reform of the postal system earned him substantial profits, and he extended the lease in each case until his death. Having thus successfully reformed the postal service, he bought on the previously operated as a small company quarries of Bath stone and led her company as a whole. To transport the stone blocks he built a rail track, with the with the help of a natural gradient, the square could be transported from the quarries to to Bath and to the loading point on Avon. The building boom in Bath in the 18th century, in which almost all new buildings were built with stones from Allen's quarries, and the distribution of stones throughout England made ​​Allen one of the richest men in England. In addition to its spacious town house in Bath he built 1735-1748 by John Wood his new country seat Prior Park. Built of Bath stone house is situated on a hilltop and thus was a highly visible symbol of the prosperity of its builder, but also for the quality of its stones. On another hill to the south of Bath, he built in 1762 Sham Castle, an artificial castle ruin, which lies in a line of sight to his townhouse.

Allen was one of the most influential citizens Baths. In Prior Park, he received numerous guests, including his friends Henry Fielding and Alexander Pope and statesmen such as William Pitt. Already in 1725 Allen was elected to the city council of Bath, in 1742 he was Mayor of Bath. He was regarded as beneficent and donated, among other things for the construction of the Mineral Water Hospital in Bath, now the Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Disease, and for the construction of the St Bartholomew's Hospital in London both money and stones as building material.

Family

Allen married in 1718 Miss Earl, an illegitimate daughter of his patron George Wade. His wife died in 1722. His second wife he married on March 24, 1737 Elizabeth Holder, with a son, Ralph had.

Allen died after a short illness on June 29, 1764 in Bath.

Others

With the figure of the benevolent Squire Allworthy in his novel Tom Jones Henry Fielding sat him a literary monument.