The Houghton family...
The "Hough" part of the name is probably derived from the Anglo-Saxon word "Hogh", meaning a point of land projected into a plain. The suffix "ton" is most likely a variation of the "tun" found in both Old English and Old Norse. It meant simply an enclosure, a house, farm, settlement or town.
Variations on the name include : Hoghton, Hoeton, Hoctona, with the Norman spelling being de Hozton (pronounced de Hokhton).
From information provided by Bob Houghton...
One of the earliest references to a member of the Houghton family dates back to the Battle of Hastings in 1066 A.D. It reads "According to tradition in the Bors family, a certain knight de Hoghton, at the battle of Hastings 1066, fought a Saxon knight, Sir Bors. Afterwards, the de Hoghton knight had land in Lancashire given him, Hoghton Towers, which was near the estate of Sir Bors. Subsequently, the Norman knight married the Saxon heiress of the Bors estate. A descendant of the Bors family, a Rev. A. Law of Bigbury rectory, Knightsbridge, has a picture of this contest in his house." Signed H.N.H. Houghton (undated).
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Another reference appears in the Domesday book of 1110 A.D., when King Henry I appointed Willemus de Hoctona, a landowner near Winchester, Hampshire, as his Royal Chamberlain. The Southwick prioires of 1326 mention an Adam de Hoghton, and another document shows a Sir Richard de Houghton, knight of the shire, as living on the Isle of Wight.
The [Houghton] family is mentioned in contemporary documents of the 12th and 15th centuries, but the actual links to the current family begin with a Thomas Houghton of Colemore and Swanwick, in around 1563. When his son Thomas Jr. died in 1611, his will was written on a parchment over four feet in length! As the family in the south grew, they began to settle in many of the small farming villages in the county; Colemore (in 1460), Titchfield (in 1550), and Durley (in 1600). While the family records have traced a line back to William Houghton of Colemore (1433-1480), our earliest documented Houghton ancestor so far is Uriah Houghton, born June 6, 1760.
The families which eventually settled in Canada and Australia are both descended from the Houghtons of the area around Bishop's Waltham and North Boarhunt, small villages north of Portsmouth.
