Notes:

His widow died 20 Feb 1804 or 1805

Check that the following dos not refer to his son.

He founded West India house of Alexander Houstoun & Co. and was one of the six founders of the old Ship Bank (or Dunlop Houston & Co.).

Lead partner from 1742 in Glasgow's premier West India House, Alex Houston & Co, which originated as partnership of William McDowall I and James Milliken I of Nevis and St Kitts.

Children baptised in the parishes of Glasgow or Renfrew: Elizabeth (1744), Isobell (1745), Jean (1746), Andrew (1748), Robert (1749), Johanna (1751), Alexander (1752), Christian (1754), James (1756).

Second cousin of William McDowall II. The father, William McDowall I brought Houston into his sugar business from the late 1720s as his agent in Port Glasgow and in Glasgow's South Sugar House. Houston's brother William captained McDowall's sugar ships (for example, The Industry, from 1731).

From 1727, The McDowall (Thomas Milliken master) regularly used the London ports (London, Deal, Gravesend, Dartmouth) in McDowalls name. On McDowall's return to Britain from St Kitts, he began changing his sugar ports from the Thames to the Clyde. In 1735 The Industry, Wm. Houston Master (and the McDowall, Thos Milliken Master), for St. Kitts are listed as belonging to 'Jas Milliken & Co'. When the Port Glasgow Customs accounts become available from 1742 (the year after James Milliken's death), all the company's ships are listed under Alexander Houston.

(Research):In 1750 the Crawfords sold Jordanhill to a notable Glasgow merchant, Alexander Houston (one of the "Tobacco Lords"). However at the end of the century the firm of Alexander Houston & Co. got into serious financial trouble as a result of their business in slaves at a time when slavery was falling into disrepute in British eyes, and forgetting that slaves unlike other commodities had to be fed and maintained till they were sold. Jordanhill had to be sold in 1800 and it was bought by another Glasgow merchant, Archibald Smith, of the firm of Smith & Leitch.

Col. Macdowall, in 1727, bought Castle Sempill, the ancient patrimony of the Sempills, Barons Sempill; and Major Milliken, in 1733, bought the adjoining estate of Milliken, then called Johnston. They brought their business with them, making Glasgow the market for their sugar, and Port-Glasgow the headquarters oF their ships. This was enough to materially help the West India trade of Glasgow and the Clyde. But this was only a small part of what they did for it. They founded the West India house of James Milliken & Co. (which in Gibson's History appears in the list of shipowners of 1735), and out of James Milliken & Co. grew the great West India house of Alexander Houston & Co., which would be regarded as a great house even now, and did business then on a scale that one would scarce believe possible for a house of last century.

The partners in 1795 were two sons of the founder, Alexander Houston, namely, Andrew Houston of Jordanhill, and his brother, Robert Houston-Rae of Little Govan, and two grandsons of Col. W. Macdowall, namely, William Macdowall of Castle Sempill, M.P., and his brother, James Macdowall, Provost of Glasgow. This great firm failed, and there had been no such crash since the Virginian collapse in 1775, and there has been no such crash since till the collapse of the Western and City Banks. Ultimately, after untold delay and confusion, every creditor was paid in full, principal and interest; for the assets, including the great estates of the partners, realised over ?1,000,000 sterling, but the Houstons were utterly ruined, and the Macdowalls were left with but a fragment of a great fortune.

???buried in the old Ramshorn cemetery in Glasgow.

Alexander married Elizabeth Rae on 3 Oct 1743 in Govan, Scotland. Elizabeth (daughter of Robert (of Little Govan) Rae and Elizabeth Dunlop) was born about 1709; died about 1804. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

(Research):Colonel Hare purchased the Calder Hall estate from Sir Alexander Houston (About or before 1886)

Birth:
Kirknewton & East Calder, Midlothian, Scotland

Andrew + Isobel Elphinstone. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Robert Rae of Little Govan is that eldest son of the deceased John Rae, merchant, burgess and guild brother of the burgh of Glasgow, who was enrolled as a burgess and guild brother of the burgh of Glasgow on 15 November 1732

In 1737 John Geils and his trustees sold the lands of Govan-haugh, for the behoof of John Geils's creditors, to Robert Rae, father of Colin Rae

Robert + Elizabeth Dunlop. Elizabeth (daughter of James (3rd of Garnkirk) Dunlop and Lilias Campbell) was born before 8 Nov 1698; and died. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

ELIZABETH DUNLOP (secundus) is the daughter of James Dunlop of Garnkirk. She was born before 8 November 1698, the date upon which her baptism was registered at Cadder parish in Lanarkshire, Scotland. Supposedly Lilias campbell was her mother, she being the daughter of Robert Campbell of North Woodside and Catherine Napier

Birth:
possibly at Garnkirk, Cadder parish, Lanarkshire, Scotland

Christened:
Her baptismal record, which reads as follows: "Elizt laull daughter to James Dunlop of Garnkirk baptized Witneses therto Matt Cuming of Cardarach Mr Archd Robertone of Bedlay Jo: Rae and Wm: Dunlop Merts in Glasgow" - no mention of her mother

Andrew + Jean MacDowall. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

John Rae, merchant in Glasgow, was enrolled as a burgess and guild brother of the burgh of Glasgow on 29 September 1688. he was admitted him in right of his father.

John Rae of Little Govan, formerly John Rae of Broomlands, succeeded to the lands belonging to his cousin, Archibald Rae of Tannochside

John married Elizabeth Dunlop in 1688. Elizabeth (daughter of James (2nd of Garnkirk) Dunlop and Elizabeth Roberton) was born in 1664; and died. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Birth:
probably in Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland

Notes:

JAMES DUNLOP, third of Garnkirk, married, 1689, Lilias Campbell, only daughter of Robert Campbell of North Woodside, by his first wife Katherine, second daughter of John Napier of Kilmahew : they had sixteen children : Mrs. Dunlop died at the birth of the sixteenth in 1709, aged 34. James Dunlop married, secondly, Mary Douglas, but by her he had no family. He died in 1719. His children by his first wife were - (I.) Robert, born 1690, and died young; (II.) James, born 1697, of whom afterwards (the fourth laird of Garnkirk); (III.) Robert, born 1700, became a prosperous merchant in Glasgow, and bought from Andrew Blackburn, Househill, a property which was acquired by his great-grand-uncle, Thomas Dunlop, in 1646, and afterwards sold to the Blackburns (see Househill); (IV.) John, born 1702, was apprenticed to Francis Congalton "chirugeon apothecary," burgess of Edinburgh, but nothing further is known of him, and he probably died without issue; (V.) Thomas, born 1704, was a Virginia merchant in Glasgow, of the firm of Thomas Dunlop and Co. He had a very fine house on the west side of the Candleriggs, nearly opposite what is now the City Hall. He died unmarried in 1783 aged 79; (VI.) Colin, born 1706, was a rich Virginia merchant in Glasgow. He purchased Carmyle and was Provost in 1770. His eldest son was James Dunlop, who in 1782 bought Garnkirk from his uncle, James Dunlop the fourth of Garnkirk (see Tollcross for a full account of Provost Colin Dunlop's family and descendants); (VII.) William (a twin), born 1708, married Mary Boyd, only daughter of "a genteel and wealthy family in Ireland." They had two daughters, Martha and Mary, who both died very old and unmarried, and one son, Robert, who married Catherine, fourth daughter of John Corbet of Tollcross. This Robert Dunlop had a daughter, Janet, who never married, William, a captain in the army, whose family are settled in Ceylon, and Boyd, who had two daughters, Helen, Mrs. R. A. Morehead, and Catherine of Albyn Place, Edinburgh, and one son, Robert, who went to Australia; (VIII.) Archibald, born 1709, died 1719. (I.) The eldest daughter died an infant; (II.) Elizabeth, born 1692, died an infant; (III.) Jean, born 1693, married Thomas Peter of Crossbasket, and died 1729; (IV.) Katherine, born 1695, married to William Douglas of Leith, she died aged upwards of ninety. They had two sons and one daughter unmarried. Robert, the eldest son, married and had a family; his descendants mostly went abroad. Their second son, John Douglas, became a merchant in Glasgow. He married Cecilia, daughter of George Buchanan, brewer, Bailie 1732 (see Mount Vernon), and had by her seven sons and one daughter, viz.: 1) William; 2) John; 3) Cecilia; 4) Neil (afterwards Sir Neil, G.C.B.); 5) Thomas Dunlop, a well-known citizen of Glasgow, who afterwards bought the estate of Dunlop, and died in 1869 aged 94; 6) Archibald; 7) James; 8) Colin. (V.) Lillias, born 1696, died unmarried; (VI.) Elizabeth, born 1698, married to Robert Rae of Tannochside. Their son was Colin Rae of Little Govan, Aitkenhead, Polmadie, &c.; (VII.) Janet, born 1701, died 1711; (VIII.) Margaret, a twin, born 1708, and died young. - Source: Glasgow digital library

James married Lilias Campbell in 1689. Lilias (daughter of Robert (of North Woodside) Campbell and Catherine Napier) was born about 1675; died in 1709. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]