Notable Southern Families. Volumes I-II. Chatanooga, TN: Lookout Publishing Co., 1918
The family is of Scotch-Irish origin, like so many of those which have ben written of in this series.
In 1735 John Houston emigrated from the North of Ireland to America settling first in Pennsylvania and from thence removed to Virginia. He was accompanied by his mother (who is recorded as being a widow, Mrs. John Houston, showing that John Houston's father was also John Houston) and his wife who was before her marriage, Margaret Cunningham. One child of John Houston and his wife Margaret Cunningham Houston, James Houston, was left in Ireland and died there. They had six other children all of whom married. Their descendants are in the entire Southern territory.
The widow Houston who accompanied her son John Houston to America in 1735. She lived to be 97 and died in Rockbridge County, Virginia, and was buried not far distant from the present New Providence Church cemetery, Rockbridge County, Virginia.
In the name of the father of the emigrant John Houston, there appears to be divergence of opinion. On page 426, "Ninth Scotch-Irish Congress", the name is given as Samuel Houston, with the following additional data regarding his ancestry:
"Hugh Huston came from Wighanshire, Scotland, to Ireland: there he married Sarah Houston of County of Antrim (Ireland) family of Houstons: their son Samuel married Margaret McClung and their son, John, came to America early in the Eighteenth Century: remained for a time in Pennsylvania, then prior to 1750, removed to the 'Borden Grant', Virginia".
The above record is taken from the family chart given by Archibald Wood Houston, Toledo, Ohio, 1895, a descendant from John Houston the emigrant, through his fourth child, John Houston who married Sarah Todd. Mr. Houston is also a descendant of the Rev. James Waddell--the Blind Preacher of Augusta County, Virginia, and it would appear that he would have at his command the best authority.
John Houston, the emigrant, from whom the lines given in this article diverge, was born in Ireland in 1689-90. He diedi in Rockbridge County, Virginia, in 1754 and is buried there beside his wife and mother.
As the family record states that they remained in Pennsylvania until their three eldest children were married, they must have left Pennsylvania for Virginia not earler than 1744 when their second daughter and third child, Ester, would have been about twenty years old. The three children referred to are: Robert (who married Margaret Davidson), Isabella (who married a Henderson) and Esther (who married John Montgomery).
Seven Children of the Emigrant John Houston.
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History of the Huston families and their descendants, 1450-1912 : with a genealogical record, by E. Rankin Huston, 1912, page 15
The famly remained some time in Lancaster county and then removed to Virginia. John Houston's will is on record in August county, VA., in Will Book No. 2, page 40, and was admitted to probate May 15, 1755.
He was born about the year 1690, and his death occurred 1754.