Moses Allen was born in Northampton, Massachusetts. He was licensed by the Presbytery of New Brunswick, February 1, 1774. On March 10, 1775, he was ordained near Charleston, South Carolina, and installed as pastor of an Independent Church at Wappetaw. In 1777 he resigned his charge and removed to Liberty County, Georgia, where he took charge of the Midway Presbyterian Church; but the next year his congregation was dispersed and his church burned. He therefore entered the army as chaplain and at the capture of Savannah was taken prisoner, and being obnoxious to the enemy, on account of his patriotic exhortations from the pulpit and his animated exertions in the field, he was confined closely in a prison-ship. Wearied with his confinement for weeks in that loathsome place, he determined to escape by swimming, but was drowned in the attempt on the night of February 8, 1779. Mr. Allen, notwithstanding his clerical function, appeared among the foremost in the day of battle, and on all occasions sought the post of danger as the post of honour.

The friends of independence admired him for his popular talents, his courage and his many virtues. He was an eminently pious man.

Source:
Alexander, Samuel Davies, Princeton College During the Eighteenth Century, Anson D.F. Randolph & Company, New York, 1872, pp.147-148

Submitted by Bob Franks