| Note | | Houghton Association: JWH, pp. 43-53
HOUGHTON ASSOCIATION
"Notwithstanding the very discouraging report of the directors of the Houghton Association preceding, the stories about the unclaimed estates in England belonging to the Houghton heirs in America continued in circulation and finally led to the formation of a second Association the report of whose proceedings and conclusions was published in pamphlet form in A. D. 1869, by Columbus Smith, who had previously been appointed one of the agents to make the investigation. For the information of our readers we re-print that report."
Organization
"There was a general meeting of the Houghton family at Winchendon, Mass., on the 21st of April, 1868. This meeting was called for the purpose of collecting information relative to unclaimed Houghton property in England reported to belong to the Houghton family in America,
and to devise means, through a joint action of the family, to have a thorough and final investigation made of their claim to the large unclaimed Houghton property in England."
"The Houghton family was well represented at this meeting. After a long consultation, they concluded that no longer delay should be allowed in this matter." "They concluded no proper investigation of their claim had ever been made in England. They wanted the question finally settled, as to whether there is, or is not, a Houghton property in England belonging to the Houghtons in America, as reported, and if there is, its situationwhether recoverable or not"
"The members of the family, at this meeting, unanimously adopted the following Constitution:"
PREAMBLE
" Whereas, certain Houghtons died in England, leaving real and personal property, at the time of their death, to the amount of millions of dollars; and whereas, the next of kin and heirs to this property, are said to be in America; now, in order to prosecute the investigation and procure the pedigree of the family, and ascertain whether or not there is any such property, we, the undersigned, do hereby agree to form ourselves into an Association, under the following"
CONSTITUTION
ARTICLE I. This society shall be called the Houghton Association.
ARTICLE II. Columbus Smith, of Salesbury, Vt., and A. B. Herrick, of Burlington, Vt., are hereby appointed agents for the purpose of investigating the case in England, and are required, from time to time, to make frequent reports of their doings to the members of this Association.
ARTICLE III. Harrison O. Smith, of Moncton, Vt., is hereby empowered to raise two thousand dollars, to cover the necessary expenses attending the matter of investigating the case in England, and all other necessary incidental expenses connected therewith, by issuing such an amount of script as shall be necessary, which said script shall be a lien upon the property when recovered.
ARTICLE IV. Every script shall be sold for five dollars, entitling the purchaser to two hundred dollars out of the first money recovered from said estate, by any member of the Association, and no more script shall be sold by said agent than shall be necessary to raise the aforesaid sum of two thousand dollars, together with the expenses of the sale thereof, which, in no event shall exceed 10 per cent. of the sale of each script.
ARTICLE V. The said Smith and Herrick are to be allowed fifteen hundred dollars for making a thorough investigation of the case in England, with reference to whether or not there is property there; if any, its situation, and also the pedigree of be entitled to, and take, the property as an escheat. Then by petitioning the Lords of the Treasury for a sum Of money equal to the value of the estate (less the costs attendant upon the sale the party leaving the same; and, in addition thereto we agree to pay to them 10 per cent. of all we, or any of us, or our heirs. may recover from said estate.
ARTICLE VI. No member of this Association shall be liable to pay more than five dollars, as expenses or compensation, or otherwise to any person or persons whatever.
ARTICLE VII. Any member of the Houghton family may become a member of this Association by paying five dollars to H. O. Smith, of Moncton, Vt., and signing this Constitution, entitling each member to a printed report made in the case, and also to the sum of two hundred dollars out of the money recovered.
Winchendon, Vt., April 21st, 1868.
In due time Mr. Smith made the following report:
Report Of Columbus Smith
To the Houghton Association:
By the especial request of many members of the Houghton family, I attended your first family meeting at Winchendon. I then informed you of the difficulties of substantiating a claim to an old estate in England. But few of these "large, unclaimed estates," reported to exist in England existed in fact, and that but very few of those estates had ever been recovered by American claimants. I considered the
chances against you, though there was a possibility of your finding a large, unclaimed Houghton property preserved in the Court of Chancery, or in the hands of trustees, recoverable, but not in the possession of private individuals, for then your claim would be barred by the English statute of limitations.
I also mentioned to you, there, the difficulties in the way of Americans recovering real estate in England. I then thought and now think, no real estate in England, by a suit in any court, can be recovered by an American whose grandfather was born in America, for they are aliens (this does not apply to leasehold property); but if an American should be found to be the real heir at law of real estate there, the crown would be entitled to, and take, the property as an escheat. Then by petitioning the Lords of the Treasury for a sum of money equal to the value of the estate (less the costs attendant upon the sale thereof), I think a grant in money would be made to the claimant, though I do not know of a precedent. I believe the English Government intends to do justice in all cases. The information you gave me, at your first meeting, relative to unclaimed Houghton property in England, was, for the most part, traditionary, and, of course, not to be implicitly relied upon.
From the information there produced, I could not advise any member of the family to spend much money in the investigation, for I thought the final recovery would not warrant it. But if the whole family wanted the case examined in England, by uniting they could have it done with but little expense to each member of the family. After an examination, should it be proved that the Houghton family were entitled to no property in England, then the information collected relative to the family would, in a measure, compensate for all outlay. In accordance with the wishes of your Association, I will now give you all the information I have been able to collect, from various sources, relative to the matter under consideration. This report must, necessarily, be imperfect, for we have not had time nor opportunity to collect many facts in the case, nor but few full pedigrees of the different branches of the family. Nearly every member of this family is aware that, for very many years, it has been currently reported, in different branches of the family, that there was a large Houghton property in England belonging to the Houghtons in America. This matter has been agitated certainly, for more than sixty years. In 1847 a Mr. Rice was appointed agent for the Houghton family to examine this case in England. He went to England, and there made an examination and report on the same. He had had no experience in making searches in England, and was unsuccessful in finding the desired property. The family was convinced his search was not so thorough as it ought to have been.
It is not necessary for me to rehearse here all the different reports that have been in circulation concerning this property, for such reports must be familiar to all of you. The property claimed, by some, is said to be the Houghton Tower and a very large tract of land around it; by others, it is said to be a large property in the Court of Chancery. I should have more confidence in the validity of a claim to property in the Court of Chancery, than I should to a claim of the family to any real estate. It seems to me that the statute of limitations must be an
effectual bar to all claims for the Houghton Tower property, though I do not know how long this property has been in the possession of the present occupants, but, I think, over forty years, the time allowed to bar all other claims.
Since I was appointed agent of your Association, I have heard that the Henshaws, of Massachusetts, claimed the Houghton property, in England, and that about the year 1719 their claim was near being substantiated in the Court of Chancery in England, but that the same claim was abandoned on the death of Joshua Henshaw, in England, in 1798. I have been informed that, some twenty-five years ago, this Henshaw claim was again revived and some attorneys in New York tried to prove the Henshaw pedigree, but were unsuccessful.
I can give no better statement of this case than can be found in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register, April, 1868, page 112, viz.: Joshua Henshaw, the grandfather of the first named Joshua, was born in Lancaster, England, about the year 1645, and with his brother, Daniel, born about 1646, was probably abducted and sent to New England, about 1652. They came to Dorchester, Mass., where they resided during their minority. The family tradition is, that the Rev. Mr. Mather, who came from Lancaster, England, had the care of them, and of the money sent with them, for their support and education, and for setting them up in business. Joshua there married, in 1670, Elizabeth Sumner. Three children were born to them. In 1688 he made his will, and in the early part of the next year went to England for the purpose of recovering the large property left by his parents in the care of Peter Ambrose, their steward who bore the imputation, not without probable grounds of suspicion, of having sent the boys, Joshua and Daniel, out of England for the purpose of getting possession of
their property, for before they were sent away, they had lived in his care and on the estate for several years, and after their departure he retained possession and died in the occupation of the estate. Wavertree Hall, extolled by Walter Scott, was a part of it. When Joshua arrived in England, he found Joshua Ambrose in possession of and claiming the estate, as heir to his father, Peter. Mr. Henshaw filed a bill in Chancery against Ambrose, but not being then prepared to prove his paternity, returned to Dorchester, and procured the necessary evidence. To this bill the defendant put in his answer, and at a subsequent term of the court, in 1690, the plaintiff not appearing, the bill was dismissed, with seven nobles costs. In 1692, after Mr. Henshaw's return to England, his case against Ambrose was restored to the
docket and kept there for nearly thirty years. In 1719, when it became certain that decision was about to be rendered in favor of the plaintiff, Mr. Henshaw was invited by Ambrose to dinner, upon pretense of a desire to effect an amicable settlement, and soon after the dinner was seized with an illness, from which he died in a few hours. The suit was then dropped for want of a prosecutor.
In order to make the relation of the Henshaws to the Houghton family appear and show the possible origin of the tradition that the Houghtons were entitled to large estates in England the following record is inserted in the report of Columbus Smith in 1869, and we again reproduce it thinking it may be of sufficient interest to justify the giving it a place.
1st. Evan Houghton (ancestry unknown), of Great Carleton in the County of Palatine, of Lancaster. Died at Knowsley January 29, 1608. Married daughter of Carleton.
2nd. Richard, born in 1554. Married Margaret, daughter of Henry Stanley, Esq., of Lancaster.
Date of marriage settlement October 8, 1585.
3d. Evan Houghton, son of Richard, County Of Lancaster, was killed at the taking of Liverpool by Prince Rupert, in 1644. Married Ellen, daughter of a Mr. Parker, Esq., of Kridgeball, Lancaster.
4th. Katherine, daughter and only child and heir Of Evan, died 1661. Married William Henshaw, killed at the taking of Liverpool in 1644. Married about 1687.
5th. Joshua Henshaw, born in Liverpool about a year and ten weeks before his father was killed. Was living in 1701. He was sent to New England in 1658 and returned April, 1688. Married Elizabeth, daughter of William Sumner in New England. Joshua had the following
children: William, born 1671; Joshua, born 1673; Thankful, born 1678; John, born 1681; Elizabeth, born 1685; Katherine, born 1688.
It will be seen by the foregoing pedigree of Mr. Henshaw, that the American Henshaws are descended from Evan Houghton, through a female line. Mr. William Henshaw, who married Katherine, was living in Massachusetts at the time this pedigree was made, as well as the
descendants of John and Ralph Houghton.
It is possible that John and Ralph may have descended from the same Evan Houghton, and their descendants may have claimed the same property. We do not know when the American Houghtons first claimed. They may have known of their claim as early as the Henshaws. I find
some branches of the Houghton family now claim to have descended from Evan Houghton. This suit, instituted by Joshua Henshaw, may throw much light on the subject. This should be thoroughly examined; and through this we may find the birth of John and Ralph, and if married in England, their marriages and the birth of some of their children. And it is possible we may find the personal property of Evan Houghton still in chancery. I have heard of properties being recovered from this court after remaining in court nearly two hundred
years, though such things are of rare occurrence. Last autumn I wrote my partner, Mr. Herrick, of London, that our information concerning this claim was then very limited, and I thought not best to spend much time or money in the case until I could gather all the facts which could be collected in America, relative to the property and pedigree of the family. In the meantime it would be well for him to collect all the advertisements he could find relative to Houghton, and to search the manuscripts made by the heralds, in their visitations, for Houghton pedigrees. A few months since, I wrote him to search for the pedigree of Evan Houghton. I have received from him the following communication:
LETTER OF A. B. HERRICK
London, England, Jan. 14, 1869.
Columbus Smith, Esq.
Dear Sir- I have secured a few advertisements, which I shall forward at once. The chancery case appears to be a good one; and I am endeavoring to ascertain the pedigree of Thomas Houghton. Perhaps this advertisement refers to the property originally claimed by the Houghtons in America. I have not yet been able to ascertain the amount in the case. But I hope soon to have reliable data, which will enable us to settle the matter. The fact of the property remaining so long unclaimed, is sufficient to encourage us. The other advertisements shall be attended to, also. Nothing shall remain undone which will enable us to ascertain the cause of the tradition which has encouraged the claimants thus far.
I have examined particularly the Evan Houghton claim, but am not yet able to report. The case involves much labor, and the records are almost inaccessible. I hope, however, to be able to report upon this particular case soon.
With reference to the Houghton Tower claim, I think that the rightful claimants are now in possession of the property. In the Bank of England, I have learned that there are still unclaimed dividends standing in the name of Houghton. I am now at work, and shall use every means to do justice to the case.
Yours truly,
A. B. HERRICK
Then follows a number of advertisements calling for claimants to property in the Court of Chancery, but it is sufficient to say that none of them had the remotest connection with the Houghtons in America. |