Allen Vince

Allen Vince (ca. 1785–1849) was one of Stephen F. Austin's Old Three Hundred.

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Allen Vince and his brothers, William, Robert, and Richard Vince originally came from Georgia, United States. Vince was a widower whose two sons did not come with him to Texas. He was living in the San Jacinto River area in 1822 and was listed in the census of 1826 as being between twenty-five and forty years of age. His sister Susan Vince kept house for the family.

Allen Vince was a partner of Mosis A. Callahan when they received title to a sitio of land in what is now Harris County, Texas on August 3, 1824. On April 30, 1831, Vince received an additional half league in eastern Grimes County, Texas and Montgomery County, Texas, and in 1838 he received a labor of land in Harris County, Texas.

The brothers gave their name to Vince's Bayou, famous for Vince's Bridge at the time of the Battle of San Jacinto. Though Vince did not personally participate in the battle, Antonio López de Santa Anna who fled the battlefield on his black stallion, was captured when he could not cross the burned bridge.

In 1838 Sally Vince, a black woman, filed suit against Vince, charging him with holding her, a free black, in slavery. She based her case on a deed executed by William Vince dated September 7, 1834, that granted her freedom at his death. Allen Vince, William's administrator, contended that William owned only a one-third interest in Sally. When William's property was sold, Allen Vince claimed to have purchased her for $500. The case, which went to jury on January 7, 1839, awarded Sally Vince her freedom.

Vince married Ann Baker Hendrick Malone in 1839 and some time later married Matilda Welborn, according to some sources, he may have been living with two wives simultaneously. In 1838 the Second Congress of the Republic of Texas declared John Vince, son of Allen Vince and Matilda Welborn, the legitimate son of Allen Vince and capable of inheriting his parents' property. Allen Vince was administrator of the John Flanders estate in 1841 and of the Richard Vince estate in 1844.