John Houston (immigrant)

John Houston (1689 or 1690 – 1754), of Scottish-Irish heritage, immigrated from Ireland to Colonial America in the 1730s. During the voyage the passengers learned that the ship's captain planned on robbing the wealthy passengers of their gold sovereigns. They took control of the vessel and sailed to Philadelphia. After living a number of years in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Houston moved his family and established a plantation in what is now Rockbridge County, Virginia. His great-grandson was Sam Houston.

John Houston
Born1689 or 1690
Ireland
Died1754
Augusta County, Virginia (now Rockbridge County, Virginia)
SpouseMargaret Cunningham
Parent(s)John Houston and Margaret McClung
RelativesSam Houston (great-grandson)

Background

During the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, the Houstons and other Presbyterians immigrated from Scotland and settled in Ulster. The great migration from Scotland to Ireland occurred between 1640 and 1670.[1] Houston descends from baronets (Sir Patrick Houstoun, 1st Baronet).[2] Sir John Houston, a baron, built a castle near Johnstone, Scotland. He received an estate, given to an ancestor, Sir Hugh de Paduinan, after he saved the life of Malcolm, King of Scotland.[3] The area was known initially as Hugh's-town for Sir Hugh and became what is now known as Houston.[4][lower-alpha 1] (/ˈhuːstən/ HOO-stən), in Renfrewshire, Scotland.[3]

Biography

Houston, given his father's name, was born in 1689 or 1690 in the northern reaches of the Kingdom of Ireland (1542–1800).[1][5][lower-alpha 2] Around 1735, Houston, his wife, four sons, two daughters, and his widowed mother left Ireland for Pennsylvania;[1][lower-alpha 3] one of their seven children, James, stayed in Ireland and died there.[3][5]

According to Marquis James, Sam Houston's biographer, the family left Belfast, Ireland for Pennsylvania in 1730. They and other families carried gold sovereigns on their transatlantic journey, which was rare among immigrants. The ship's master, with others, planned to steal the money. The passengers were made aware of the scheme in the mid-Atlantic and they took control of the ship, apprehended the captain and put him in chains, and navigated the ship into the port of Philadelphia.[2][6] The Houstons settled in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.[7] While in Pennsylvania, Houston's two daughters and a son, John, were married.[2] They were Houston's three eldest children.[5]

Conestoga wagons on the Great Wagon Road

The family traveled along the Great Wagon Road, through the Shenandoah Valley,[3] to Old Augusta County, Virginia (now Rockbridge County, Virginia)[8] around 1742[7] or 1745, where Houston acquired Borden's Tract from Benjamin Borden[7][8] for $25 for 100 acres.[1][lower-alpha 4] They traveled with other Scot-Irish Presbyterian families who intended to build churches and schools. Houston built a stockade fort that provided some safety from wild animals and Native Americans. His house was large enough to take in a number of families. A grammar school and a log meetinghouse known as the Old Providence Church, were established near the fort.[9][lower-alpha 5] The New Providence Church was established for the members who lived in the lower settlement, near Walker's and Hays' Creeks.[9]

Houston established the Timber Ridge Plantation (now the site of Church Hill in Lexington, Virginia).[3] He contracted with indentured servants for their labor for a specified number of years.[3] Among the first to do so, he purchased African Americans to be his slaves,[2][3] and expanded the amount of acreage and the number of enslaved people as he prospered.[3] He served as a judge and military soldier, fighting the French and Native Americans.[2][3] He became unofficially known as Squire Houston.[3]

1751 Fry-Jefferson map depicting the Virginia Colony and surrounding provinces in 1752

In 1754, he was clearing a field in Augusta,[8] during which he set a tree on fire. The tree fell on him and he died.[2][3] Houston was buried at the Old Providence Church.[8] His son Robert took over management, as well as the gentrification, of Timber Ridge.[2]

Personal life

He married Mary Margaret Cunningham and they had six[1][3] or seven children.[5] Their children were: Robert, Isabella, Esther, John III, Samuel, Matthew, and James.[5]

Legacy

Sam Houston was Houston's great grandson, who descended through his grandparents Robert and Margaret Davidson Houston and his parents Samuel and Elizabeth Paxton Houston.[8][lower-alpha 6]

Notes
  1. Haley states, "the settlement that grew up around it became known as Hughstown, the common source of variant family spellings of Houstoun, Houston, and Huston".[3]
  2. According to family historian Archibald Wood Houston, in 1895, his father, was Samuel Houston (also stated as John Samuel Houston), who married Margaret McClung.[5]
  3. His mother, born around 1650, died in Rockbridge County, Virginia at the age of 97.[5]
  4. The property is also called Burden's Land.[1]
  5. The John Houston mentioned in the book may have been Houston, or his son John.[9]
  6. The Paxtons and Houstons immigrated to America together from Ireland.[8]

References
  1. Wilson, Leonard (1915). Makers of America: Biographies of Leading Men of Thought and Action, the Men who Constitute the Bone and Sinew of American Prosperity and Life. B.F. Johnson. pp. 452, 455.
  2. James, Marquis (1920). The Raven;a biography of Sam Houston. Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill company. pp. 3–5.
  3. Haley, James L. (2002). Sam Houston. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. p. 5. ISBN 978-0-8061-3405-5.
  4. "Houston, a village and a parish in Renfrewshire". Vision of Britain, University of Portsmouth and others. Retrieved 2023-07-27. From F.H. Groome, Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (1882-1884).
  5. Armstrong, Zella; French, Janie Preston Collup (1918). Notable Southern families. Chattanooga, Tennessee: The Lookout Publishing Company. pp. 179–180.
  6. Morton, Oren F. (1920). A history of Rockbridge County, Virginia. Staunton, Va., McClure Co. p. 258.
  7. Woodward, Mac (2002-12-15). Sam Houston: For Texas and the Union. The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc. ISBN 978-0-8239-5739-2.
  8. Harrison, John Houston (1975). Settlers by the Long Grey Trail. Genealogical Publishing Company. p. 408. ISBN 978-0-8063-0664-3.
  9. Foote, William Henry (1856). Sketches of Virginia: Historical and Biographical. J.B. Lippincott. pp. 58–60. ISBN 978-0-7222-0920-2.
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