Family/Spouse: Andrew (of Calderhall) Houstoun. Andrew (son of Andrew (of Gartland) Houstoun and Jean MacDowall) was born on 25 Dec 1702; died on 28 Jul 1786 in Calderhaugh, Kirknewton, Midlothian. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

(Research):***Check birth date of this person and his father***

Christened:
??? Baptised 12/05/1709, son of Andrew Houstoun of Calderhall and his wife Isobel Elphinstone

Family/Spouse: Nellie Waddell. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

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:

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

Notes:

General Sir William Houston, 1st Baronet GCB GCH KC (10 August 1766 ? 8 April 1842) was a General in the British Army and the Governor of Gibraltar.

William married Lady Jane (of Lauderdale) Maitland in Nov 1808. Jane (daughter of James (7th Earl of Lauderdale) Maitland and Mary Lombe) was born about 1759; died on 1 Jun 1833. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: John (of Garscube) Campbell. John and died. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Elizabeth married Hugh (12th of Ardgour) Maclean in 1763. Hugh (son of John (11th of Ardgour) Maclean and Marjory Maclachlan) was born in 1736; died on 4 Sep 1768. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

The Houstons of Jordanhill were of a very old Galloway family, the Houstons of Busbie, now represented by Sir George Houston Boswell. Andrew Houston, of Jordanhill, married Margaret Wallace, sister of John Wallace of Kelly, and left a son, Sir Robert Houston, whose grandson, Captain J. F. Houston, R.A., now represents the Houstons of Jordanhill.

from "Curiosities of Glasgow citizenship" by George Stewart published 1881. - Short biographical notices of the principal merchants, manufacturers etc of Glasgow in 1783.
[http://gdl.cdlr.strath.ac.uk/stecit/stecit14060.htm]

Died:
Died from an accident

Andrew married Margaret Wallace in 1799. Margaret (daughter of Hugh (of Biscany, Jamaica) Wallace and Margaret Whyte) was born about 1748; and died. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Formerly a Glasgow merchant, partner in the failed McDowall firm, then of London and lastly of Carshalton.

Alexander Houstoun and Elizabeth Rae had a lawful son, Robert, born 15/10/1749 "near 8 at night" and baptised in Glasgow 02/11/1749. Multiple newspapers carried reports of a robbery at Robert Houstoun's house in Carshalton in June 1827, describing Houstoun as "in a very ill state of health" at the time. Robert Houstoun was buried in Carshalton 06/02/1828 age 78 years.

Will of Robert Houstoun having frequently assumed and used and been called by the name of Robert Houstoun Rae, of Carshalton [made in 1826], proved 16/02/1828. Under the will he left ?12000 in trust [the trustees included his nephew Col. Robert Houstoun of the East India Co.], for the life of his son Robert Rae Houstoun (to whom he also left his Canefields estate on St Kitts), then to Robert Rae Houstoun's wife for life, then to their children, then to his [the testator's] two other children Elizabeth and Alexander. Robert Rae Houstoun the son died in August 1829. The will of his father Robert Houstoun was the subject of Houstoun v Houstoun in 1831.

Birth:
probably Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland

Notes:

of Clerkington in Co of Haddington

NB there is potential confusion over this man, whom the History of Parliament shows as b. c. 1770, the son of Col. Andrew Houstoun (d. 1800) and the grandson of Alexander Houstoun (d. 1777), and as Lt Governor of Grenada 1796-1802 (a role for which he would have been very young): the will of Alexander Houstoun of Clerkington is more consistent with the Alexander Houstoun son of Alexander Houstoun (d. 1777) and brother of Andrew Houstoun (d. 1800) and Robert Houstoun Rae (both of whom q.v.) who is shown by genealogical sources as born c. 1752. These sources show the Alexander Houstoun the son of Col. Andrew Houstoun as dying relatively young, c. 1802. Douglas Hamilton also shows Alexander Houstoun jr. of Grenada as partner in Alexander Houstoun & Co. in 1777, reinforcing the identification of the Lt-Governor of Grenada and MP for Glasgow Burghs as the son rather than grandson of Alexander Houstoun (d. 1777)

In a codicil of 1817 he had left his estate of Belmont and the enslaved people on Grenada in trust for Andrew Hugh Houstoun (the son of Capt. John Houstoun his nephew) and his heirs, failing whom then for his nephew Andrew Houstoun of Grenada and his heirs, failing whom to his nephew Lt-Col. Robert Houstoun of the EIC.

Alexander married Isabella Douglas on 30 Jun 1785 in Saint James, Westminster, London, England. Isabella (daughter of Alexander (of Baads) Douglas and Elizabeth Taylor) was born about 1766; and died. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

He was a a captain in the 10th Hussars

William married Matilda Charlotte Jesse on 1 Oct 1839 in British Embassy, Paris. Matilda (daughter of Edward Jesse and Matilda Morris) was born on 16 Aug 1811; died in Jun 1892. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

LIEUT-COLONEL MACLEAN. November 24th, at Ardgour, N.B., aged 90, Alexander Maclean, Esq., of Ardgour.? He was formerly a lieutenant in 2nd battalion of the Royals, which he entered in 1780, but afterwards exchanged into the 63rd Foot. He subsequently became captain and major in the 8th Light Dragoons, and was for many years lieutenant-colonel of the 3rd Argyll militia. In 1795, he married a daughter of the 2nd Earl of Hopetoun, by whom he had two daughters and twelve sons; no less than seven of the latter embraced the military profession. The Gentleman's Magazine states that Colonel Maclean was "guardian to the present Marquis of Dalhousie;" but this can scarcely have been the case, as his lordship was already of age long before the death of his father, the late earl, in 1838.

Died:
? November 24th, at Ardgour, N.B.
See obituary in notes

Alexander married Lady Margaret Hope on 10 Jul 1793. Margaret (daughter of John (2nd Earl of Hopetoun) Hope and Elizabeth (of Leven) Leslie) was born on 24 Jun 1772 in South Queensferry, West Lothian, Scotland; died on 16 Sep 1831. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Ann married Donald (15th of Kingairloch) Maclean on 11 Dec 1787. Donald (son of Hugh (14th Or 10Th of Kingairloch) Maclean and Beatrix Maclachlan) was born in 1752; died on 9 Feb 1799 in D.S.P.. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Inherited Belmont estate in Grenada and claimed in a Chancery case for three other estates in Grenada as surviving trustee and executor of his father Andrew Houston (q.v.). Described in the compensation records as 'of Clerkington in Co of Haddington' and 'a Colonel in the service of the East India Company' [Legacies of British Slave-ownership]

Robert married Frances Folliot in 1799. Frances (daughter of Capt. Folliot) was born before 1799; and died. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

In the will of George Douglas of Chilston Park proved 12/07/1833. He left £50,000 in 3 per cent consolidated annuities to 'Mrs Margaret Stoddart wife of James Douglas Stoddart now residing with me' and his estate at Chilston to Margaret Stoddart for life, with remainder to James Douglas Stoddart for life, then to his nephew Rev. Alexander Houstoun and his niece Elizabeth Houstoun for their lives, then to his cousin Aretas Akers son of Aretas Akers for life. He left his estates and 'negroes' in Grenada to James Douglas Stoddart and in Tobago to James Douglas Stoddart's brother George Stoddart. His residual estate went to Margaret Stoddart for life and then half went to Rev. Alexander Houstoun and half to Aretas Akers.

Notes:

In the will of George Douglas of Chilston Park proved 12/07/1833. He left £50,000 in 3 per cent consolidated annuities to 'Mrs Margaret Stoddart wife of James Douglas Stoddart now residing with me' and his estate at Chilston to Margaret Stoddart for life, with remainder to James Douglas Stoddart for life, then to his nephew Rev. Alexander Houstoun and his niece Elizabeth Houstoun for their lives, then to his cousin Aretas Akers son of Aretas Akers for life. He left his estates and 'negroes' in Grenada to James Douglas Stoddart and in Tobago to James Douglas Stoddart's brother George Stoddart. His residual estate went to Margaret Stoddart for life and then half went to Rev. Alexander Houstoun and half to Aretas Akers.

Margaret was the adopted daughter of George Douglas of Chilston Park.

Died:
Died unmarried