The name of the first wife of RALPH ALLEN is unknown. It has been stated in many sources that her name was Susanna, but no evidence has been cited. He married second, in 1643, to Esther Swift, daughter of William Swift.

RALPH, and his son John, held land in Weymouth, Norfolk, MA, in 1643, the land first having been granted to GEORGE ALLEN. After 1643, RALPH and John were in Rehoboth, Bristol, MA. It is probable that RALPH was the man from Marblehead, Essex, MA, in 1638, banished from Massachusetts Bay.

In October 1657, RALPH ALLEN and William Newland were the first men charged for Quaker activities in Sandwich, Barnstable, MA, and were jailed for refusing to post bond. They spent five months in jail in the winter and were released the following March after paying fines. In 1658, RAPLH was disenfranchised from Sandwich for "non legel admittance" to the town.

In 1659 he refused to take the oath of Fidelity. He continued to refuse until 1661, when the King of England ordered Massachusetts Bay to stop harrassing the Quakers. RALPH was well known to the court as the most abusive and belligerent of the Quaker activists.

He was chosen surveyor in Sandwich in 1671.

Sandwich Meetinghouse
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The Sandwich meetinghouse is home of the oldest continuous Quaker meeting in America, having been gathered in 1657. The meeting was the center of Quaker activities. It included a school and homesteads of early Quaker families in the area, including RALPH ALLEN. The first official meeting was held on Apr. 13, 1657, at the home of William Allen (brother of RALPH) and his wife Priscilla.

The site of the first meetinghouse was near the current site. Then in 1694, the town of Sandwich gave the Quackers a half acre of land for a burial place "above Canoe Swamp near the 'Ways' at Spring Hill." It is not known where the Friends were buried prior to 1694. The first burial at the new site was that of Edward Perry in 1695. There was no stone as the practice then was to bury Quakers in unmarked graves. That site is now fenced by granite posts and steel bars. It is located just west of the W. V. Ahonen house, about 500 yards west of the present meetinghouse.

As a result of the growth of the Quaker population, the first meetinghouse was expanded in 1679, and then a second meetinghouse was built in 1704 at the present site. It was enlarged in 1709 and again in 1757. In 1810, the current building was erected on the same site.