John Houghton Justice
- Born: Abt 1650, Dedham, Massachusetts or England 359,688,363
- Marriage: Mary Farrar on 22 Jan 1671 in Lancaster, Massachusetts 359,689
- Died: 3 Feb 1736, Lancaster, Massachusetts about age 86 359,363
- Buried: Lancaster, Massachusetts 363
 Noted events in his life were:
• Emigration. 359
May have come to Massachusetts the same year he was born, or he may have been born in Dedham, Massachusetts.
• Point of Interest. 363
John Houghton was a noted figure in the history of Lancaster, where he was known as "Esquire" or "Justice" and served the twon repeatedly as moderator, selectman, assessor, schoolmaster, representative to the General Court, town clerk, and clerk of the writs.
• Background Information. 688
John Houghton, Jr., according to tradition, was born in England in 1650 and came to America with his parents the same year. A later report says that he was born in Dedham, Massachusetts. He married, 22 Jan 1671, Mary Farrar (born in England in 1648), the daughter of Jacob and Ann Farrar. Mary died 7 Apr 1724, and John Jr. died 3 Feb 1737, at the age of 86 years.
After the 1675 massacre at Lancaster, John Jr. went with his wife's parents to Woburn, Massachusetts where John's father-in-law died on 14 Oct 1677. In 1700, John bought the land formerly owned by his father-in-law. On the division of his father's estate, he retained the homstead on the Common and gave this land for a meeting house for Lancaster.
The important petitions to the legislature sent from the town in the time of Queen Ann's war were signed by John Jr. and his borther Jonas. He was an expert penman, and during nearly a generation, was a leading man in Lancaster. Between the years 1693-1724, he was the delegate to the general court for fourteen years, and seems to have been the only magistrate in town for many years after it was rebuilt. He was commonly called Justice Houghton. He was also a skillful conveyancer and writer of legal papers. At the age of seventy-five, he married as his second wife, Hannah Wilder, who was then seventy-two years old. In 1704, he had command of a garrison house on the east side of the river Nashua in Lancaster. He was blind for the last twelve years of his life.
His Epitaph reads:
"Here lies buried
Ye Body of John Houghton
Esquire
As you
Are so ware we
As we are so
You will be
Who died February Ye 3d Anno Dominy
1736-37 and
In Ye 87th year of his age
~The Houghton genealogy, pgs. 299-300
John married Mary Farrar, daughter of Jacob Farrar and Ann * Farrer, on 22 Jan 1671 in Lancaster, Massachusetts 359.,689 (Mary Farrar was born about 1648 in Halifax, Yorkshire, England,359,363 died on 7 Apr 1724 in Lancaster, Massachusetts 359,363 and was buried in Lancaster, Massachusetts 363.)
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