Allcott, John

Allcott, John, an English Congregational minister, was born in Warwickshire in 1764. He was designed by his friends for a carpenter; but he became an artist in Scagliola, under the tuition of the celebrated Wyatt. He established himself in business as a statuary and dealer in marble. Having acquired much wealth, he retired from trade, and gave himself to the ministry. He had been awakened to a sense of his spiritual danger in his eighteenth year by a sermon preached after a terrific thunder-storm which occurred in London. He united with the Church at Tottenham Court Chapel, London. Most of his Sabbaths he spent in preaching in connection with the London Itinerant.Society. He was ordained as an evangelist in order that he might administer the sacrament to the suburban villages. He preached at Berkhampstead for a short time on retiring from business; but in 1814 he settled at Epping, and became pastor of the Independent Church. His labors were continued for nearly eighteen years. Paralysis having disabled him for service in 1832, he retired to his house, where he died Feb. 19, 1853. See (Lond.) Cong. Year-book, 1854, p. 217.