Allston (Washington) is born in Georgetown, South Carolina.

The son of William and Rachel (Moore) Allston, Washington Allston graduates from Harvard, studies in England, Paris, and Italy, and returns to Boston in 1808. He marries Ann Channing, and, after her death, her cousin Martha Dana, sister of Richard Henry Dana. Allston leaves for Europe in 1811, then returns in 1818, later declaring, “If we have any talents, we owe something to our own country when she is disposed to foster them.” He lives in Cambridge, dies there on July 9, 1843,* and is buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery.