Charles Allen (August 9, 1797 – August 6, 1869) was a United States representative from Massachusetts.

He was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, on August 9, 1797,^[1] the son of Joseph Allen and grandnephew of Samuel Adams).^[2] Allen attended Leicester Academy (1809–1811) and Yale College (1811–1812) and studied law.^[2] He was admitted to the bar in 1821^[1] and commenced practice in New Braintree.^[2] He returned to Worcester in 1824 and continued the practice of law.^[2] On October 23, 1827, he was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society.^[3]

Allen was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1830, 1833, 1835, and 1840; he also served in the Massachusetts State Senate in 1836 and 1837.^[2] In 1842, he was a member of the Maine-New Brunswick boundary commission created by the Webster–Ashburton Treaty that ended the Aroostook War.^[1] He was a judge of the Court of Common Pleas from 1842 to 1845 and a delegate to the 1848 Whig National Convention in Philadelphia.^[2] He was twice elected to Congress as a Free-Soil Party candidate (March 4, 1849 – March 3, 1853), but did not seek renomination in 1852.^[1] In 1849 he edited the Boston Whig, later called the Republican.

After leaving Congress, he resumed the practice of law in Worcester.^[2] He was a member of the state's constitutional convention in 1853, and was chief justice of the Suffolk County Superior Court from 1858 to 1867.^[1]

He received the honorary degree of A.M. from Yale in 1836 and that of LL.D. from Harvard in 1863.^[1] He was a delegate to the Peace Conference of 1861^[1] held in Washington, D.C. to try to prevent the start of the Civil War.

Charles Allen died in Worcester, Massachusetts, on August 6, 1869.^[1] He was interred in the Rural Cemetery.^[2]

The home on which he began construction, the Charles Allen House, was completed by his descendants and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

• Charles Allen House (Worcester, Massachusetts)