Richard Allden lived at Elm Place in Church Lane, opposite his friend James Elstone at Aldershot Lodge.
Richard was from a well-established family of yeoman farmers in Aldershot. Born in 1800, he was the eldest son of James Allden, the third son of Joseph Allden. All had been baptised at St Michael’s Church.
Richard’s grandfather, Joseph Allden had married Ann May whose brother George May was successful. He outlived his wife and two children.
In 1810 her older brother George, having outlived his two children, bequeathed his property in his will to Ann’s descendants.
By far the largest part of George May’s considerable estate in West Surrey was left to Ann’s eldest son, Joseph (1756 – 1846), who lived to reach his ninetieth year. The senior branch of the Allden family thereby moved across the County boundary to Ash in Surrey.
John and James, respectively the second and third sons of Joseph and Ann Allden, remained in Aldershot. In 1814 they became tenants in common to their father’s estate, their mother having occupation of the farmstead and an annuity of £50 a year. Cash bequests of £200 were made to daughters Mary, who had married the farmer Henry Nash of Farnham in 1792, Elizabeth, who had married the farmer William Tice from Puttenham in 1794, and to each of the two daughters of Ann, who had married in 1786 to Edward Paice.
William and Elizabeth subsequently farmed Holy Grow/Grove on North Lane, William Tice becoming influential in the parish. Elizabeth Tice, widowed since 1848, was living with her unmarried daughter Esther at Cross House in 1851.
James had married in 1799, Richard Allden was his eldest son. Richard’s sister Ann had married George Baker. They had been in Aldershot in 1841, living on Drury Lane, but had moved to Farnham by 1851.
Richard’s uncle John had died childless in 1829 and his father James died in 1836. Richard consequently had an inheritance which amounted to 170 acres. Much of that stretched south towards Boxalls Lane where he also owned the brickworks. His local holdings were second in size only to the 210 acres of the Aldershot Park estate owned by Charles Barron Esq, a land proprietor from London.
The senior branch of the Allden family was headed by Richard’s cousin Joseph Allden (1788 – 1862), Joseph’s father father having passed on in 1846. Joseph married into the Harding family of farmers in Frensham, Surrey.
Joseph’s third son John (b. 1921) was to marry his cousin’s Richard Allden’s daughter Mary Ann in 1852. A year later, Richard became a grandfather for the first time.