Sir Gilbert Hoghton, MP, 2nd Baronet Hoghton

Family and Education b. 1591, 1st s. of Sir Richard Houghton* of Hoghton Tower and Catherine, da. of Sir Gilbert Gerrard† of Ince, Lancs. educ. at Court, by 1604, embassy, Paris 1616. m. settlement 12 June 1611 (with £2,500),1 Margaret (d. 23 Dec. 1657), da. and coh. of Sir Roger Aston* of Cranford, Mdx., 6s. (2 d.v.p.) 4da. (1 d.v.p.).2 kntd. 21 July 1604.3 suc. fa. as 2nd bt. 1630.4 bur. 8 May 1646.5 sig. Gi[l]b[er]t Hoghton.

Offices Held

Gov. Blackburn g.s. 1611;6 steward, master forester, master of the game, Bowland and Quernmore, Lancs., master forester, Myerscough, Amounderness and Bleasdale, kpr. of Myerscough Park 1621-d.;7 freeman, Preston by 1622,8 Wigan by 1628,9 Liverpool by 1629;10 commr. Forced Loan, Lancs. 1626,11 knighthood fines 1631-2,12 sewers 1632;13 j.p. Lancs. by 1627-42,14 dep. lt. 1627-41,15 sheriff 1642-3.16

Cupbearer, King’s Household 1616-17,17 carver-in-ordinary 1617-?at least 1637.18

Biography At the age of only 13 Houghton was knighted at Court, where he became an early favourite of Prince Charles. As a youth he participated in tournaments at Whitehall,19 was renowned for his dancing, and was described as a ‘noble favourer of virtuous spirits’ in a publication dedicated to him in 1614 by the satirist Nicholas Breton.20 Court life brought benefits, including a grant in 1615 of three quarters of the fines that had accrued to the king in Common Pleas over the preceding decade.21 However, Houghton’s prospects were overshadowed from the outset by his father’s mounting debts. In June 1616 he petitioned for a monopoly of Irish exports of tallow, butter and hides, but the grant was blocked by the objections of Sir Francis Bacon*.22 After accompanying Lord Hay on a sumptuous embassy to France in July 1616,23 Houghton joined the royal progress to Scotland in the following year,24 and together with his father entertained King James at Hoghton Tower in August 1617, an event which brought the family close to bankruptcy and left Sir Richard a debtor in the Fleet until his death in 1630. Houghton managed to avoid the same fate mainly because of his advantageous marriage to Margaret, co-heiress of Sir Roger Aston, master of the wardrobe; nevertheless he spent much of his adult life trying to recover his estates, which had been leased or mortgaged, and in litigation against his father’s creditors.25

The local influence of Houghton’s family accounted for his return at Clitheroe in 1614. His only appointment in that brief session was to attend the Palatine marriage conference with the Lords on 14 April.26 In 1620 he was elected a knight for Lancashire. He was named to bill committees concerning Lord Montagu’s lands (16 Mar.), Sir Walter Stewart’s naturalization (19 Mar.), lighthouses and sea-marks (7 May), and ostlers and inns (28 May); he was also appointed to attend a conference with the Lords on the Sabbath bill (24 May).27 Although not a Member in 1624, he submitted a petition to the Lords concerning Walton manor, one of the estates heavily mortgaged by his father, which he was trying to save from repossession by various creditors. In this petition he requested that Sir William Cockayne, who had bought out the share of a previous lender, return to him Walton manor, as he had finally paid the debts secured upon it; he thereby managed to avoid further litigation, and to regain possession of Walton, where he occasionally resided from the later 1620s.28 He was also indirectly involved with the Commons in 1624, as he and the other co-heirs of Sir Roger Aston appeared as plaintiffs against one Grimsditch before the committee for the courts of justice.29 The House ruled against Grimsditch, who nevertheless petitioned the Commons in 1626,30 by which time Houghton was again sitting for Lancashire. Once more Houghton played only a minor part in proceedings, being appointed to committees to consider a malt bill (9 Mar.), corrupt victuals on Count Mansfeld’s voyage (22 Mar.) and the disputed Leicester election (26 April). On 25 May, the Thursday preceding Whit-Sunday, he was granted leave to go to Lancashire because his wife had been taken ill, but though instructed to ‘return as soon as he can’ it is unlikely he came back before the dissolution on 15 June.31

After Charles’s accession Houghton retained his place as a carver in the royal Household, obtaining an exemption from the Forced Loan of 1626-7 as a ‘servant in ordinary’ of the king.32 From about 1627, however, he evidently spent more time in Lancashire than at Court, becoming an active magistrate and serving as a deputy lieutenant; he took on the local offices of his father, including the latter’s role as a Duchy forester, several years before he actually succeeded him as second baronet in 1630.33 Unlike his father, a suspected crypto-Catholic, Houghton was a committed Anglican, siding in 1633 with John Bridgeman, bishop of Chester, in a dispute concerning the defrocked incumbent of Ormskirk, James Martin. The latter complained of ‘outrages’ committed by Houghton and the ‘puritans of Preston’, claiming that he dared not return to Lancashire for fear they would shoot him.34

At the outbreak of the Civil War Houghton was removed from the bench by the Parliament, but was appointed sheriff of Lancashire by the king in December 1642.35 A keen supporter of King Charles, he immediately joined the county’s royalists, led by James Stanley* Lord Strange. After capturing a cache of confiscated papists’ weapons at Whalley, he attempted to take Blackburn, besieging the town during the winter of 1642-3. He was defeated, and in February 1643 lost control of Hoghton Tower, which was partially destroyed by an explosion that killed a large number of parliamentary troops.36

Though his estates were sequestered and his family divided, Houghton remained a royalist until his death; he was buried at Preston on 8 May 1646.37 His third son, Roger, a royalist officer, was killed by cannon fire at Hessam Moor in 1643, and a fourth son, Gilbert, also a royalist, became governor of Worcester.38 His eldest surviving son and heir, Sir Richard, whose marriage in about 1633 to a daughter of Philip, Lord Chesterfield had helped boost the family’s beleaguered finances, was a parliamentarian, and rapidly recovered the Houghton estates; he succeeded as third baronet, and was elected as a knight of the shire in 1646 and 1656.39 Houghton’s widow, Margaret, did not remarry; at her death in 1657 she was remembered as ‘an earnest puritan’ in a published funeral sermon.40

Ref Volumes: 1604-1629 Author: Rosemary Sgroi Notes 1. Cal. Hoghton Deeds and Pprs. ed. J.H. Lumby (Lancs. and Cheshire Rec. Soc. lxxxviii), 248. 2. Vis. Lancs. (Chetham Soc. lxxxv), 154. 3. Shaw, Knights of Eng. ii.134. 4. CB. 5. St. John Preston Burials 1642-1812 transcribed W. Worthington (Lancs. Fam. Hist. and Heraldry Soc. 2002), pt. 3, p. 6. 6. W.A. Abram, Hist. Blackburn, 330. 7. Duchy of Lancaster Office-Holders ed. R. Somerville, 143. 8. Preston Guild Rolls ed. W.A. Abram (Lancs. and Cheshire Rec. Soc. ix), 53. 9. D. Sinclair, Hist. Wigan, i.197. 10. G. Chandler, Liverpool Under Chas. I, 150. 11. T. Rymer, Foedera, viii. pt. 2, p. 145 12. E178/5389, f. 5. 13. C181/4, f. 130. 14. Lancs. RO, QSC5-38. 15. Cal. Hoghton Deeds and Pprs. 256; Lancs. RO, DDN1/64. 16. Cal. Hoghton Deeds and Pprs. 257. 17. LC5/134, p. 157; Lansd. 273, ff. 28, 74. 18. SP14/90/118; LC2/6, f. 38v; E179/70/136; SP16/154/76, f. 103; Cal. Hoghton Deeds and Pprs. 256. 19. Cal. Hoghton Deeds and Pprs. 268. 20. Abram, 718-19. 21. CSP Dom. 1611-18, p. 299, 497. 22. Letters and Life of Francis Bacon ed. J. Spedding, v. 355. 23. CSP Dom. 1611-18, p. 426. 24. SP14/90/118. 25. SP14/78/95; DL1/291; C2/Chas.I/S79/17, 2/Chas.I/S96/4; Lancs. RO, DDHo/KK1123, KK1124; P.R. Long, ‘Wealth of the Magisterial Class in Lancs. 1590-1640’ (Manchester Univ. MA thesis, 1968), pp. 166-7. 26. CJ, i. 465a. 27. Ibid. 556b, 563a, 611a, 626a, 628b. 28. Lords main pprs. 20 Mar 1624-8 Apr. 1624; HMC 3rd Rep. 30; Cal. Hoghton Deeds and Pprs. 190-1; Abram, 106-7. 29. ‘Nicholas 1624’, f. 64; C2/Chas.I/H108/45. 30. CJ, i. 859a. 31. Ibid. 833b, 840a, 849b, 864a. 32. CSP Dom. 1625-6, p.129; Rymer, viii. pt. 2, p. 145. 33. Lancs. RO, DDN1/64; Chandler, 232-3; CSP Dom. 1637, p. 290. 34. SP16/236/42, 16/244/13. 35. Civil War Tracts ed. G. Ormerod (Chetham Soc. ii), 20, 60; Lancs. RO, DDHo/MM1164. 36. G.C. Miller, Hoghton Tower, 92-105; VCH Lancs. vi. 40-3; Abram, 114-26. 37. Add. 18981, f. 266; St. John, Preston Burials 1642-1812, pt. 3, p. 6. 38. Vis. Lancs. (Chetham Soc. lxxxv), 154. 39. Cal. Hoghton Deeds and Pprs. 249; C2/Chas.I/C12/14; Roy. Comp. Pprs. ed. J.H. Stanning (Lancs. and Cheshire Rec. Soc. xxix), pt. 3, 292. 40. Lancs. and Cheshire Antiq. Notes, ii. 126-9.

Sir Gilbert Hoghton, 2nd Baronet of Hoghton Tower (1591 – April 1648) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons in different sessons between 1614 and 1640. He was a Royalist leader during the English Civil War. He was the son of Sir Richard Hoghton, 1st Baronet of Hoghton Tower, Lancashire. He became a courtier, and a favourite of King James I and was knighted by the king at Whitehall on 21 July 1604. [1][2]

Dates for Sir Gilbert's death vary with the source cited - as early as 1646 and as late as 1648. Older texts spell his surname Hoghton while more modern texts spell it Houghton.

In 1614, Hoghton was elected Member of Parliament for Clitheroe to the Addled Parliament.[3] and was then elected in 1621 to hold the county seat for Lancashire until 1622. He was re-elected MP for Lancashire in 1626.[3] In 1630 he inherited the baronetcy on the death of his father.[4] In April 1640, Hoghton was re-elected MP for Lancashire to the Short Parliament.[3] He was High Sheriff of Lancashire in 1643. In the Civil War he was a prominent Lancastrian Royalist commander and the first to take action in the Blackburn Hundred. In February 1643 he was present at the loss of Preston and later served at Chester.[5] Hoghton Tower was used a Royalist garrison and part of the tower was accidentally blown up by parliamentary forces, killing a number of them.[4] The estate was subsequently sequestered. Hoghton died in April 1648 and was buried at Preston.[6]

Hoghton married Margaret Aston (died 22 December 1657), the eldest of four daughters and co-heiress of Sir Roger Aston of Cranford, Middlesex,[1][a] with whom he had 6 sons and 4 daughters:[7]

• George, the eldest son, died young.
• Richard, succeeded to the title and estate.
• Roger (died 1643), who was killed in the Battle of Marston Moor
• Gilbert (died 1661), became a major in the regiment of Sir Gilbert Gerard (Governor of Worcester), married Lettice, daughter and co-heir of Sir Francis Gamull of Chester
• Thomas, died young;
• Henry, captain of horse under James, Earl of Derby, who took to wife Mary, daughter of Peter Egerton of Shaw, in Lancashire, and widow of Sir Thomas Stanley of Bickerstaff, in Lancashire, Bart.
• Catharine, married Thomas Preston of Holker, in Lancashire.
• Mary, married Sir Hugh Calverly of Lee, in Cheshire.
• Margaret, married Alexander Rigby of Middleton, in Lancashire.
• Anne died young.

He was succeeded by his son Sir Richard, who was able to recover the Hoghton estate.[8] Sir Gilbert's descendants therefore bear the same in right of his lady, who died Dec. 23, 1657, and bore him six sons and four daughters.

Notes

[a] Hoghton's father-in-law, Sir Roger Aston, was a Gentleman of the Bedchamber and Master of the Great Wardrobe to King James I (Betham 1801, p. 37). [1] Betham 1801, p. 37. [2] Shaw 1906, p. 134. [3] Sgroi 2010. [4] Nichols 1828, p. 454. [5] Broxap 1973, p. 29. [6] Pink & Beaven 1889, p. 69. [7] Betham 1801, pp. 37–38. [8] "HOUGHTON, Sir Gilbert (1591-1646), of Hoghton Tower and Walton, Lancs.". History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 29 March 2013.