Date Died: September 8, 1921

Place Buried: Willow Dale Cemetery in Goldsboro, NC

William Reynolds Allen was born on March 26, 1860 in Kenansville, NC, the son of William Anderson Allen (lawyer and NC Senator) and Maria Goodwin (Hicks) Allen. He received his initial education at R. W. Millard's School and Samuel Clements's School in Kenansville. From 1876 to 1877, he attended Trinity College (later Duke University); he left Trinity College at the end of his junior year and taught school for almost two years in the town of Auburn in Wake County. Upon returning to Kenansville, he read law with his father and passed his bar examination in the Spring of 1881.

After a short law partnership with his father at home, William Reynolds Allen moved to Goldsboro, the county seat of the adjacent Wayne County.

In 1884, William Reynolds Allen formed the law partnership of Faircloth and Allen.

On November 3, 1886, William Reynolds Allen married Martha "Mattie" Middleton Moore, daughter of Dr. Matt Moore and Martha Middleton Moore of Duplin County; they had five children.

In 1889, William Reynolds Allen was the senior partner of the firm of Allen and Dortch (his colleague's father was William T. Dortch).

In 1892, William Reynolds Allen was first elected as one of two men to represent Wayne County in the NC House of Representatives of the:
- 90th General Assembly that met in 1893
- 93rd General Assembly that met in 1899
- 94th General Assembly that met in 1901

From 1894 to 1895, and from 1903 to 1911, William Reynolds Allen was a Judge in the NC Superior Court and he held hearings in every county of the state.

In the 1910 General Election, William Reynolds Allen was elected as an Associate Justice on the NC Supreme Court, replacing Associate Justice James Smith Manning, who had not sought re-election. He took the oath of office in January of 1911, and served on the court until his death.

On September 8, 1921, William Reynolds Allen died, and he was buried in the Willow Dale Cemetery in Goldsboro, NC.