Solomon Houghton (1729 - 1781)

Born 5 Jun 1729 in Lancaster, Worcester, Massachusetts

Ancestors

Husband of Deliverance (Ross) Houghton — married 11 Jul 1751 in Lancaster, Worcester, Massachusetts

Descendants

Died 26 Mar 1781 at age 51 in Lancaster, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States [uncertain]

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Julie Mangano [send private message] and John Rueb [send private message]

Biography

Solomon was born 05 June 1729 to parents Joshua and Elizabeth Houghton. He married Deliverance Ross 11 July 1751 in Lancastser, Worcester, Massachusetts. The couple had at least seven children . Solomon Houghton passed away 26 March 1781 in Lancaster, Worcester, Massachusetts.

Solomon is notable for being one of only four Houghtons to be a Loyalist during the Revolutionary War. His property was confiscated by the Massachusetts court.

Birth Record ^[1]

Name: Solomon Houghton

Event Type: Birth

Birth Date: 5 Jun 1729

Birth Place: Lancaster, Massachusetts

Father Name: Joshua Houghton

Mother Name: Elezabeth Houghton

Marriage Record ^[2]

Name: Solomon Houghton

Gender: Male

Spouse: Deliverance Ross

Marriage Date: 11 Jul 1751

City: Lancaster

County: Worchester

Source: Family History Library, Salt Lake City, UT, Film # 0547550.

Solomon Houghton and his wife Deliverance are named in the birth records of their children, as shown below.

Children's Birth Records

Molley Houghton ^[3]

Name Molley Houghton

Gender Female

Birth Date 18 Jun 1752

Birthplace LANCASTER,WORCESTER,MASSACHUSETTS

Father's Name Solomon Houghton

Mother's Name Diliverance

Tamer Houghton ^[4]

Name Thamer [sic] Houghton

Gender Female

Birth Date 03 Jun 1754

Birthplace Lancaster, Worcester, Massachusetts

Father's Name Solomon Houghton

Mother's Name Diliverance [sic]

Lois Houghton ^[5]

Name Lois Houghton

Gender Female

Birth Date 18 Oct 1758 [sic] should be 1756

Birthplace LANCASTER,WORCESTER,MASSACHUSETTS

Father's Name Solomon Houghton

Mother's Name Deliverrence

Solomon Houghton ^[6]

Name Solomon Houghton

Gender Male

Birth Date 18 Dec 1758

Birthplace LANCASTER,WORCESTER,MASSACHUSETTS

Father's Name Solomon Houghton

Mother's Name Deliverrence

Philemon Houghton ^[7]

Name Philemon Houghton

Gender Male

Birth Date 19 Mar 1761

Birthplace LANCASTER,WORCESTER,MASSACHUSETTS

Father's Name Solomon Houghton

Mother's Name Deliverance

Hiram Houghton ^[8]

Name Hiram Houghton

Gender Male

Birth Date 25 Jun 1763

Birthplace LANCASTER,WORCESTER,MASSACHUSETTS

Father's Name Solomon Houghton

Mother's Name Diliverance

Benjamin Houghton ^[9]

Name Benjamin Houghton

Gender Male

Birth Date 03 Feb 1768

Birthplace LANCASTER,WORCESTER,MASSACHUSETTS

Father's Name Solomon Houghton

Mother's Name Deliverance

According to The American Loyalists, or Biographical Sketches of Adherents to the British Crown in The War of the Revolution; Alphabetically Arranged; with a Preliminary Historical Essay by Lorenzo Sabine, Solomon Houghton was a loyalist who fled from his home in 1779. The Judge of Probate in Worcester County appointed commissioners to examine claims against his estate. ^[10]

Name: Solomon Houghton

Gender: Male

Spouse: Deliverance Ross

Marriage Date: 11 Jul 1751

City: Lancaster

County: Worchester

Source: Family History Library, Salt Lake City, UT, Film # 0547550.

The military annals of Lancaster, Massachusetts, 1740-1865 : including lists of soldiers serving in the colonial and revolution ^[11]

"Solomon Houghton, a Lancaster farmer in comfortable circumstances, fearing the inquisition of the patriot committee, fled from his home. In 1779, the judge of probate for Worcester County appointed commissioners to care for his confiscated estate."

UK, American Loyalist Claims, 1776-1835 ^[12]

Name: Solomon Haughton

Previous Residence Place: Lancaster

Correspondence Place: Massachusetts

Record Type: Miscellaneous

Piece Description: Documents Communicated by State Government

US Region: Massachusetts, North Carolina, Delaware

Worcester County, Massachusetts, Probate Index, Vol. 1 & 2 A - Z, July 1731-1881 ^[13]

Given Name: Solomon

Surname: Houghton

Record Date: 1781

Residence: Lancaster

Record Type: Administration

American Loyalist Claims, 1776–1835. AO 12–13. The National Archives of the United Kingdom, Kew, Surrey, England. ^[14] Following the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783), British commissioners were appointed to examine claims of losses sustained by those loyal to the British crown or "Loyalists" during and following the war. Records in this database relate to Loyalist claims and cases heard by the American Loyalist Claims Commission.

[Transcribed by Charles J. Vella, Houghton Surname Project, 2020]

Solomon Houghton: The Commonwealth of Massachusetts Worcester To the Sheriffs or Marshalls of our said county of Worcester his undersheriff or deputy. Greeting

L.S. Whereas We before our Justices of our Inferior Court of Common Pleas holder for…within our county of Worcester aforesaid, at Worcester, upon the second Tuesday of December last, by adjournment from the first Tuesday of the same Month, by a…of the Great General Court by the Confederation of Our Said Inferior Courts recorded Judgments before our Title … proprietary? Of the last tenements, their testaments, hereafter described, late the estate of Solomon Houghton, late of Lancaster in the county aforesaid, Yeoman, an absentee, agreeable to the tenor? Form by virtue of an act of the Great General Court, entitled “An Act for confiscating the estates of certain persons commonly called Absentees.”

A tract of land in the Southerly parts of said Lancaster near Shrewsbury… person being the said Solomon’s homestead containing by estimation 80 acres more or less, bounded as follows. Eastwardly on land of Abraham Howe, southwardly on land of Silas Howe, Southeastwardly on land of Benjamin Hinds & the heirs of Jotham Bush, Eastwardly on the land of the said heirs, Northwardly on the land of Silas Howe, together with one upright dwelling house, one barn & other out buildings standing thereon consisting of morings?..and woodlands.

Also, another tract of land lying in the Southwardly part of said Lancaster near the said Solomon’s homestead, containing by estimation about thirty-two acres more or less bounded as follows: Eastwardly on the land of Levi Moore, Westwardly on Elijah Ball’s land and James Ball’s land, Southwardly and westwardly on said James Ball’s land consisting of pasturing, woodlands. Also a piece or tract of pine woodland lying in said Lancaster near to the said Lancaster homestead of aforesaid Solomon, containing by estimation about thirty acres more or less is bounded westwardly on land of Zebulon Rice, Northwardly on land of Levi Moore, Southwardly on land of Silas Howe, eastwardly on land of Nathaniel Hastings, with all the privileges…to the above said tracts of land and to the said buildings belonging. As to…hath been made to appear of record.

We command you therefore that without delay you…to have possession of the land and tenements and hereditaments aforesaid with all the privileges, appurtenance and safements? To the same belonging. Thereof fail not and make return of this writ with your doings unto our said Inferior Court of Common Pleas to be holden at Worcester upon the last Friday of March next. Witness Artemas Ward, Esquire at Worcester the twenty fourth day of January in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty one.

Jos. Allen, Clerk

Worcester. – February 13th, 1781. By virtue of the within writs I have delivered possession of the land, tenements, and hereditaments within described to Levi Lincoln Esquire specially empowered and appointed by Robert Paine Esq. Attorney General of the Commonwealth, to receive the same.

Jonathan Price, Dy. Sheriff A true copy. Attest. Jos. Allen Clerk

Find A Grave Burial Record ^[15]

Note that this record gives a different birth month for Solomon's birth. Since we have a birth record that confirms he was born in June, I'm keeping that month as his official birth month.

Name: Solomon Houghton

Birth Date: 5 Jan 1729

Birth Place: Lancaster, Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States of America

Death Date: 26 Mar 1781

Death Place: Lancaster, Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States of America

Has Bio?: Y

Spouse: Deliverance Houghton

Children:

Solomon Houghton

Nahum Houghton

Tamar Whitney

Mary Whitney

Sources

1. ↑ Town and City Clerks of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Vital and Town Records. Provo, UT: Holbrook Research Institute (Jay and Delene Holbrook). Solomon Houghton, born 05 June 1729 in Lancaster, Massachusetts to Joshua and Elizaneth Houghton. Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.
2. ↑ Dodd, Jordan, Liahona Research, comp. Massachusetts, Marriages, 1633-1850. Solomon Houghton married Deliverance Ross on 11 July 1751 in Lancaster, Worcester, Massachusetts. Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, Compiled Marriages, 1633-1850 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005.
3. ↑ "Massachusetts Births and Christenings, 1639-1915," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FZKP-3QL : 10 February 2018), Solomon Houghton in entry for Molley Houghton, 18 Jun 1752; citing LANCASTER,WORCESTER,MASSACHUSETTS, ; FHL microfilm 0547550 IT 1.
4. ↑ "Massachusetts Births and Christenings, 1639-1915," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FZK5-2F9 : 10 February 2018), Thamer Houghton, 03 Jun 1754; citing LANCASTER,WORCESTER,MASSACHUSETTS, ; FHL microfilm 0547550 IT 1.
5. ↑ "Massachusetts Births and Christenings, 1639-1915," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FZK5-6ZX : 10 February 2018), Solomon Houghton in entry for Lois Houghton, 18 Oct 1758; citing LANCASTER,WORCESTER,MASSACHUSETTS, ; FHL microfilm 0547550 IT 1.
6. ↑ "Massachusetts Births and Christenings, 1639-1915," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FZKB-V9L : 10 February 2018), Solomon Houghton in entry for Solomon Houghton, 18 Dec 1758; citing LANCASTER,WORCESTER,MASSACHUSETTS, ; FHL microfilm 0547550 IT 1.
7. ↑ "Massachusetts Births and Christenings, 1639-1915," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FZK1-SXW : 10 February 2018), Solomon Houghton in entry for Philemon Houghton, 19 Mar 1761; citing LANCASTER,WORCESTER,MASSACHUSETTS, ; FHL microfilm 0547550 IT 1.
8. ↑ "Massachusetts Births and Christenings, 1639-1915," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FZKR-2FW : 10 February 2018), Solomon Houghton in entry for Hiram Houghton, 25 Jun 1763; citing LANCASTER,WORCESTER,MASSACHUSETTS, ; FHL microfilm 0547550 IT 1.
9. ↑ "Massachusetts Births and Christenings, 1639-1915," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FZKB-DL8 : 10 February 2018), Solomon Houghton in entry for Benjamin Houghton, 03 Feb 1768; citing LANCASTER,WORCESTER,MASSACHUSETTS, ; FHL microfilm 0547550 IT 1.
10. ↑ Sabine, Lorenzo. Biographical sketches of loyalists of the American revolution, with an historical essay, Volume II, published in 1864 by Boston, Little, Brown and company, page 532.
11. ↑ Nourse, Henry S.. The military annals of Lancaster, Massachusetts, 1740-1865 : including lists of soldiers serving in the colonial and revolutionary wars for the Lancastrian towns, Berlin, Bolton, Harvard, Leominster, and Sterling. Lancaster: unknown, 1889. Solomon Houghton, page 204
12. ↑ American Loyalist Claims, 1776–1835. AO 12–13. The National Archives of the United Kingdom, Kew, Surrey, England. Solomon Houghton, Lancaster, Massachusetts. The National Archives of the UK; Kew, Surrey, England; American Loyalist Claims, Series I; Class: AO 12; Piece: 83. Ancestry.com. UK, American Loyalist Claims, 1776-1835 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013.
13. ↑ Oliver B. Wood. Index to the Probate Records of the County of Worcester, Massachusetts. Boston, MA, USA: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1898. Solomon Houghton, 1781, Lancaster, Massachusetts. Flint, James, comp.. Worcester County, Massachusetts, Probate Index, Vol. 1 & 2 A - Z, July 1731-1881 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2000.
14. ↑ Vella, Charles J. Houghton Surname Project, 2020: https://www.houghtonsurnameproject.com/g0/p54.htm#i1606
15. ↑ Find A Grave, database and images (Find A Grave: Memorial #54836331 : accessed 03 May 2019), memorial page for Solomon Houghton (5 Jan 1729–26 Mar 1781), Find A Grave Memorial no. 54836331, ; Maintained by Deb Hayes-Wolfe (contributor 46811474) Unknown.

Research Notes

Houghton-2618 showed 25 Jul 1838 as birth date, however FAG Memorial 54836331shows DOD as 26 Mar 1781 which is more consistent when using the birth date of 5 Jan 1729.