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“William Howston (Houston Houstoun)
Assembly: New Castle Co. 1699, 1700a
b. Cotreoch manor Wigtownshire, Scotland. arr. By Oct. 1696. d. 1711. Father: William Houston Mother: Agnes Stewart (Houston). Cousin: John Donaldson. [1. CNC, 2:220; NCMW, 1:178–79; Gibson, Essays, 205, 208; Prop. E, 187, bundle B3].
William Howston. a Scottish Presbyterian merchant of New Castle County, Delaware, had a brief legislative career at a time of political unrest in New Castle County and of strained relations between Pennsylvania and the Lower Counties.
Howston probably arrived at New Castle in 1696, bringing with him sufficient funds to buy what was apparently a fully-equipped household; in addition to “a tract of land in Town with housing purchase included “a negroe woman. A Cow. & Cafe, a horse &c.” When the penny-per-pound tax passed by that year’s Assembly was assessed, Howston’s property was rated at a substantial £300. In his will. Howston described himself as ‘William Houstoun sometime Merchant Burgess of Whithorn and burgosse and gild brother of The City of Glasgow both in Scotland.” but whether he came to New Castle directly from Scotland has not been discovered. He may have came to the colony from London. where his brother Anthony was in business as a furrier. Howston patented his tract in New Castle in 1703, selling it three years later to his friend John French, the county sheriff. Howston also acquired 300 acres in the county on the south side of Cristina Creek. [2. CNC, 2:220; MPTLC, 53–54; NCMW, 1:178–79; PATBk. A, 2:538–40; NCDBk. G, 1:433–35; PWP, 4:540n.]
Howston was first elected to the Assembly at a time of great political turmoil in New Castle County. On two occasions in the spring of 1699, the freeholders of the county had refused to elect representatives to the Assembly. Howston was elected at a special polling in January 1700 held when William Penn. Under pressure from the English authorities to enact legislation to suppress piracy and illegal trade, summoned a second session of the 1699 Assembly Cornelius Empson and John Grubb complained that they and other inhabitants along Brandywine Creek had not been notified of this election, but the return of delegates was allowed to stand. In the Assembly, Howston represented his county on a committee appointed to work with a committee of the Provincial Council on bill to prevent illegal trade. When the bill was finally passed. Howston was one of seven assemblymen to carry it to the proprietor for his approval. With Anthony Morris,’ Isaac Norris, and Nehemiah Field, he was also appointed to confer with the Council about the appointment of a receiver and about the upcoming spring election. Howston was reelected at that polling, but his known activity the spring 1700 Assembly was limited to carrying a bill to William Penn, in company with John Swift, to extend the length of the session. That Assembly failed in its attempts at constitutional revision and ended by surrendering the Frame of Government to the proprietor[3. MPTLC, 69; MPC, 1:570, 589–90, 613; Votes, 1 (pt. 1):109, 112, 115, 117–18; PLAD, 2:372, 382.]
Few details of Howston’s life after the completion of his Assembly career are known. Although a Presbyterian, he contributed £2 10s toward the construction of an Anglican church in New Castle. Also, he was involved in a protracted, five-year legal dispute apparently stemming from a debt that he was unable to collect. Howston took the matter to the governor and Council on two occasions when he failed to derive satisfaction in court. He also apparently spent an extended period “Deprived of his Liberty” as a result of co-signing a marriage bond to Governor John Evans for John French. The bond stipulated that French was to be married in an Anglican ceremony. When, instead. French was married by a Presbyterian minister. Evans sued Howston for payment of the bond, obtained judgment against him, and had him taken into custody for refusing to pay. Howston’s brother Anthony complained to William Penn, who saw the case as inconsistent with freedom of conscience in the colony and ordered Evans’s successor, Charles Gookin, to cancel the bond and have Howston set at liberty. [4. Holcomb, 45; MPC, 1:576–77, 2:127, 494–95, 504. ]
Howston drafted his will on 25 May 1707, he probably died shortly before its probate, on ii December 1711. No inventory of his proper has been located. He bequeathed all his real and personal estate in Scotland to his three sisters, his 300 acres on Christina Creek to the Reverend John Wilson and his successors. “Prisbitorians ministors of New Castle for ever and ever after. as a glebe for their support. and £150 sterling to be paid to the 13-year-old son of one Sarah Hows living in South waite near London at age 21. Howston left the remainder of his estate in Europe or America to his brother Anthony. At the time of Howston’s death the estate of William Clark* was indebted to him for £110. [5. Gibson. Essays. 208; NCMW. 1:17879; Statutes. 322528.]
Citations
CNC - Records of the Court of New Castle Delaware, Vol. 1, 16761681, Vol. 2 1681/1699 (Land and Probate Abstarct), (Colonial Society of Pennsylvania, 19171935)
MPTLC -Miscellaneous Papers, Three Lower Counties, Delaware, 16551805, HSP.
Holcomb - Thomas Holcomb, Sketches of Early Ecclesiastical Affairs in New Castle, Delaware, and History of Immanuel Church (Wilmington, 1890)
Gibson, Essays - George H. Gibson.ed., The collected Essays of Richard S. Rodney on Earlt Delaware (Wilmington, 1975)”
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