Ira Allen

Ira Allen (April 21, 1751 in Cornwall, Connecticut – January 7, 1814) was one of the founders of Vermont, and leaders of the Green Mountain Boys; he was the brother of Ethan Allen.

Ira Allen was born in Cornwall, Connecticut, the youngest of six sons born to Joseph and Mary Baker Allen. In 1771, Allen went to Vermont as surveyor for the Onion River Land Company. The Allen brothers established the company in order to purchase lands under the New Hampshire Grants. Through this, Allen was involved in a dispute with New York over conflicting land claims in the region.

He was a leading figure in the declaration of the Vermont Republic in 1777. He and his brother Ethan, along with Thomas Chittenden and others, were involved in the Haldimand Affair by their discussions with Frederick Haldimand that suggested Vermont might join the British. An alternate explanation is that they used the Haldimand negotiations to both stave off a British invasion of Vermont from Canada and to prod the Continental Congress into recognizing Vermont as an entity separate from New York and New Hampshire and admitting it to the United States.

Allen designed the Great Seal of Vermont. Over two days at Windsor in 1778, Allen drew the seal and Reuben Dean, a Windsor silversmith, made it. The two men were each paid ten shillings for their work.

In 1780, he presented to the Legislature a memorial for the establishment of the University of Vermont. He contributed money and a fifty-acre (20 ha) site at Burlington. He was called the "Metternich of Vermont" and the "Father of the University of Vermont." Ira Allen pledged 4000 British pounds sterling to the University of Vermont, but never donated that money. In response, the Trustees of the University of Vermont secured a Writ of Attachment on his title to the town of Plainfield to try to extract payment of his original 4000 pound pledge.

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