Biography

George Allan (1736-1800)

The Darlington attorney George Allan who was nick-named “the antiquary” had a personal printing press in his home at the Grange which was a hub of regional enlightened sensibility.  John Nichols’ Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century features a cluster of gentlemen associated with Allan who were linked together by freemasonry, a shared interest in antiquarianism and the theatre. 

The first history of Darlington, William Hylton Dyer Longstaffe’s History and Antiquities of the Parish of Darlington in the Bishoprick was written in the Victorian era using Allan’s collection. The collection was sold by Allan’s son and formed the basis of Newcastle upon Tyne’s Lit and Phil library.

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