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JOHN HOUGHTON (d. 1684)

BEATRIX UNKNOWN (d. 1684/1721)

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John Houghton died on 29 April 1684. He married Beatrix ___. [1, 294]

Beatrix died between 8 April 1684 and 4 April 1721.

John's gravestone in the Old Burial Field in Lancaster, Worcester County, Massachusetts says: [2]

Houghton says that Beatrix married second Benjamin Bosworth. [3] A Lancaster record says that Benjamin Bosworth married a woman named Beatris on 16 September 1671, but John was living then. [2]

Because of a record in Hotten [4], shown to the right, John is said to have come from England in the Abigail in 1635 with a certificate of conformity from the officials at Eaton Bray, co. Bedford. [1, 293] The record says that he was four.. Hotten suggests the record is a mistake; it is unlikely a four-year-old would be travelling alone. Hotten suggests the correct age might be 40, but if there was a "4" in his age, the correct age could be as young as 24. However, it is difficult to see how this John Houghton could have escaped being recorded in New England until the 1650s. Anderson concludes that this record does not pertain to the John Houghten here. [5]

A search of the Eaton Bray records revealed a man who was 42 at the time with ten children. This man could have sailed on the Abigail in June 1635 and then returned to England. He had a son baptized on 24 December 1624. This son could have come to New England later and he could be our John—as asserted by Houghton [3]—however, this is mere speculation. [6]

There is apparently no evidence that John was related to Ralph Houghton of Lancaster.

John Houghton was one of the early signers of the articles of agreement of Lancaster on 24 September 1654. [1, 35] He probably did not settle there for some time, however, as the births of his first four children are not recorded there. [1, 294]

John received a lot in the 3 February 1659 division of meadowland. [1, 71] On 1 (12) 1663 John was given libert to lay down a half home lot, as he had been granted a lot and a half. [1, 76] On 3 (12) 1667 John was given the liberty to cut timber on the commons for use in his trade. [1, 80] On 7/8 (12) 1670 John was allowed to exchange 20 acres of second division land for a 20-acre plain near his meadow. [1, 82]

John and his son John signed a 11 March 1675/6 petition describing the state of Lancaster after the Indian massacre. It said many had fled, but those left were encompassed by Indians in just two garrisons and unable to leave; they were running out of food. They requested a guard of men. [1, 108]

When Captain Daniel Hincksman was out on the service of the county, he took John's ox to supply his men. On 12 October 1676 the court orded that John be compensated five pounds. [1, 118]

During the desertion of Lancaster in King Philip's War, John and his familly went to Charlestown (now in Boston). [1, 294]

John made his will on 8 April 1684; it was proved on 17 June 1684. His heirs were his wife Beatrix and his children John, Robert, Jonas, Benjamin, Mary, and Sarah. On 4 April 1721, after Beatrix's death, the estate was divided between the eldest son John Houghton, Robert Houghton, Jonas Houghton, John Harris, and Beatrix Pope. Sarah had conveyed her share to her brothers John, Robert, and Jonas Houghton and Benjamin had died, apparently leaving no children. [6]

Children of John and Beatrix Houghton:

i. John Houghton was born about 1649. He died on 3 February 1736/7. He married first Mary Farrar. He married second Hannah (Atherton) Wilder.

ii. Robert Houghton [1, 294] was born on 28 March 1659 in Dedham. [7] He died on 7 November 1723, age 64, in Lancaster. He married Esther ___, who died on 13 January 1740/1, age 81. [6] She is probably the daughter of Michael and Isabell Lippenwell, who was born in May 1658. [6]

Robert's grave in the Old Common Burial Ground in Lancaster says: [2]

iii. Mary Houghton was born on 22 March 1660/1 in Dedham, Norfolk County, Massachusetts. [7] She married John Harris. [6]

iv. Jonas Houghton [1, 294] was born about April 1663. He died on 20 September 1723, age 60 years and five months. [2] Jonas of Lancaster married Mary Berbeane of Woburn on 15 February 1681 in Lancaster. [2] She died on 31 December 1720, age 59. [6] Jonas married second Sarah ___. [6]

Jonas Houghton, Sr. was admitted to the church in Lancaster on 29 April 1721. [2]

Jonas's grave in the Old Common Burial Ground in Lancaster says: [2]

v. Beatrix Houghton was born on 3 December 1665 in Lancaster. [2] Beatrix Houghton of Lancaster married John Pope of Lancaster on 20 September 1683 in Lancaster. [M2]

vi. Benjamin Houghton was born on 25 May 1668 in Lancaster. [2] He died by 1721.

vii. Sarah Houghton was born on 30 July 1672 in Lancaster. [2] She died before 1733. [6] She married Daniel Goble of Lancaster, who moved to Hannover, New Jersey. [6]

Endnotes:

1. Henry S. Nourse, The Earliest Records of Lancaster, Massachusetts, 1643–1725 (Lancaster: J. Coulter, 1884).

2. Nourse, Henry S., Birth, Marriage and Death Register, Church Records and Epitaphs of Lancaster, Massachusetts, 1643–1850 (Clinton, MA, W. J. Coulter, Printer, 1890).

3. John W. Houghton, The Houghton Genealogy (New York: F.H. Hitchcock, 1912).

4. John Camden Hotten, The Original Lists of Persons of Quality ... who Went from Great Britain to the American Plantations, 1600–1700, reprinted (New York: Empire State Book Co., n.d.), 89.

5. "Great Migration, 1634–1635, G–H," digitized book, originally published as Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration to New England, 1634–1635, Volume III, G–H (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2003), 423–4.

6. Anne Lane Burr and Thomas Hovey Gage, "John Houghton of Lancaster and Some of His Descendants," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 79 (1925): 392–400.

7. "Massachusetts: Vital Records, 1620–1850," database with images, AmericanAncestors.org > Dedham.

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Last revised: 17-Dec-2023