| Biography | | At age 16, he was a stowaway on one of his father's ships.
Sarah Howton Forker:
JONATHAN HOWTON
1810 Census Hopkins Co KY: Jonathan Howton
4 m 0-10, 2 m 10-16, 2 m 16-26, 1 m 45 up; 1 f 10-16, 1 f 26-45
1820 Census Hopkins Co KY: Jonathan Howton
3 m 10-16, 1 m 16-26, 1 m 26-45, 1 m 45 up; 3 f 0-10, 1 f 16-26, 1 f 45 up
THE KENTUCKY LAND GRANTS
Volume 1
Part 1
CHAPTER IV GRANTS SOUTH OF GREEN RIVER (1797-1866)
THE COUNTIES OF KENTUCKY
page 337
Grantee: Howton, Jonathan
Acres: 280
Book: 12
Page: 427
Date Survey: 9-20-1804
County: Christian
Watercourse: Piney Fk Tradewater
THE KENTUCKY LAND GRANTS
Volume 1
Part 1
CHAPTER IV GRANTS SOUTH OF GREEN RIVER (1797-1866)
THE COUNTIES OF KENTUCKY
page 337
Grantee: Howton, Jonathan
Acres: 400
Book: 19
Page: 347
Date Survey: 5-17-1808
County: Hopkins
Watercourse: Tradewater
The Family Tradition: My grandmother, Rebecca Jane (Phelps) Etheridge, told me that Charlotte (Howton) Etheridge's father Lewis came to America from London as a stowaway when he was 12 or 14 years of age, and said his parents lived at one end of the Old London Bridge. In this she was partly wrong. It was the grandfather, not the father, of Charlotte, as I later learned in Kentucky from Pauline McClearn, and his name was Jonathan Howton. She also said he was 12 or 14 years old when he came (one of them, Grandma or Pauline, said 12, the
other 14, and I can't remember now who said 12 and who said 14). I found from Pauline that the story was fairly consistent among the Kentucky Howtons that Jonathan had run away from home at this young age and made for the docks in London, where he climbed the mast of the ship as his father caught up with him. The last words he heard his father say were, "Jonathan, DO come down!" There was also a story, Pauline says, that he later proudly related that he had taken (stolen) from his mother. From Pauline I learned that he had married Ann E. Trover, who was supposed to be "Pennsylvania Dutch." However, this is a misunderstanding, for though the Trovers were from Pennsylvania, they were from western Pennsylvania and not from "Pennsylvania Dutch country" in eastern Pennsylvania, and Trover is an English name, not a German name. Pauline also
said she had heard a story that Jonathan had married in New Orleans. Others have said he may have landed in New Orleans. There was a water link between New Orleans and western Pennsylvania (the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers). Census records show that David, the oldest child, was born in PA, and the other children successively in VA, TN, and KY, showing that he followed the usual migration route up the Valley of Virginia and then probably by the water route of the Cumberland River into Tennessee and thence into Kentucky.
It should be noted that Trover, though it sounds very simple, is quite a rare name (it's an English name, but comes from French) and in early America, is found almost only in western Pennsylvania. Interesting that Grandma made reference to the "Old" London Bridge. Did the
Howtons of Hopkins Co KY know that the old London Bridge, which had been in place for centuries, was torn down in 1831 after the New London Bridge (whose stones are now in Arizona) was completed? When Jonathan came to America, there was no "Old London Bridge," just a "London Bridge." Perhaps the news of the new bridge, completed in 1831, did reach the hills of western Kentucky.
Notes From Carole Howton Long 1992 to Sabra Sudberry submitted by Betty Hannah: (Jonathan Howton>James Howton>Joel Lacy Howton>Joel Lacy Howton>James Ransom Howton)
Jonathan Howton
Regarding the story of the Howtons' arrival in America told by her family:
"Howtons came to the colonies because the oldest son was disinherited due to his wife having Jewish blood. He did a tour of duty in the colonies for the British then returned later with his wife and children. The land at the foot of Tower Bridge was supposed to be sold by the Houghtons and
Howtons brothers [ ] change the spelling and that I could find a deed in London with both spellings signed on the same deed.
Also found Jonathan maybe in Bucks Co Penn. At time of 2nd marriage to Anne Trover. (He will be 34 or 35 when David is born).
I was never told that Jonathan came alone but that he was one of the children or grandchildren of the HowtonJonathan Curtis Howton [who came] to the colonies.
There are a lot of early deaths in my family - Jonathan supposed to live the longest. He die an unknown date at 75 in 1829."
"There are 4 of Jonathan's children who say at one time or the other Virginia as their birthplace. 1st land grant on the Tradewater in
Christian Co KY is with several families from Virginia. Since I am related to many of the earliest settlers here and I believe that the settlers came
in groups because of the constant Indian attacks, I have had a problem agreeing with Penn. I believe Virginia. Contrary to popular beliefs, the
settlers, especially Western KY, used the rivers not the Cumberland Gap (North Carolina used gap). Only other Penn. Family in this area at that
time is the Mentzer (Menser later) from Penn - my lineage again."
[Carole Howton Long is daughter of Paul Howton, of Kentucky Utilities in Dawson Springs, KY].
"The Howton family of Fayette Co. has been the greatest genealogical mystery of my life for the past 18+ years. Every posssible person who could have been the progenitor of our line from Jonathan Howton has been struck down by various family researchers. In the late 1980's some thought we had found the correct person with the finding of a christening record for a John Hoton, son of George Howton and Mary Harold in 4/3/1757 at the Church of Saint Olave, London, England. Due to the fact that the name was not written as Jonathan, and this child was not an only child as legend has it with ours, this was discarded, as well as the fact that the dates were found confilciting witht he parents age being so close to our Jonathan's.. Until we can verify the date of this record, we cannot prove or disprove this. In my opinion though, we cannot absolutely rule it out and therefore I mention it in this article, in hope that some day someone might pursue the mystery.
"The story of Jonathan carries a similar thread through almost all braches of his descendants. I will begin with the story I found most enlightening. This account came from a dear distant cousin, and descendant through Jonathan's son Joseph, who shared so much with me. His name was Harry Standefer and his letters came to me in 1988. His sense of humor kept me rolling with such notes as: "At my age (93) I have to treat all replies as an emergency..."
Harry's story, "Roots" is as Follows: " At the age of 12, Jonathan Howton (spelled Houghton in England) ran away from home and came to America as a stowaway on a sailing vessel. Jonathan's father owned property on the banks of the Thames River at the foot of London Bridge (now called Tower Bridge). Ever since he was large enough Jonathan had sat on the banks of the Thames with his father and watched the ships being loaded with soliders and supplies to be sent to America to fight the rag-tag Continental Army in the Revolutionary War."
(I note another account saying that Jonathan's father owned ships. There is a record of a Hoton in London who owned the following ships: Standard, 8/4/1797-4/25/1798; Blondie 4/26/1798-11/15/1799; Defiance (a good ship for Jonathan to climb onto) 11/16/1799-10/26/1801; Audaeious 10/29/1801-10/4/1802; Juno 11/03/1802-3/23/1803;Triumph, 3/27/1803-12/23/1804).
"The stories coming from this fabulous New World fascinated Jonathan, and at a tender age he determined that once that war ended, and he could board an American-bound ship he would serely go to this Utopia."
"Records indicate that he landed in Virginia, place and exact date not known. He worked his way southward and finally arrived in New Orleans. It was in New Orleans, about eight years after his arrival in America, that he met and married Miss Ann Trover. Neither of them wanted to make their permanent home in New Orleans, so they purchased a yoke of oxen and a wagon and started out to find a place in this big New World to make their permanent home."
"They went first to Pennsylvania. After a year there and the birth of a child, they went south to Virginia. After a year there and the birth of their second child, they went back to Pennsylvania. After another year there and the birth of their third child, they went back to Virginia. After another year in Virginia and the birth of their fourth child, they succumbed to the glowing reports coming from the rich land of Kentucky. They loaded their wordly goods and their four children in an ox-wagon and headed over the mountains and through the wilderness to Kentucky."
"About 1795 they settled in Hopkins Co., KY, where they spent the rest of their lives on a 400-acre land ghrant where six more children were born. Several years later Jonathan sold 200 acres to his eldest son, David." (Note: First land grand was 9/20/1804, 280 acres to his sixth child, son Joseph, for assuming the responsiblity of caring for his parents the rest of their lives. This son, Joseph, was my great grandfather (Harry's)."
To add some of my own research to this account, I would note Jonathan stated in the document just referenced, that he received the patent to this KY land on 12/15/1816. 200 acres of this was sold to son David Hoton on 1/17/1817, and the remaining 200 acres plus stock of horses, cattle, sheep, hogs, farming tools, household and kitchen furniture to Joseph for $1 and "the condition of this obligation is such that if the above bound Joseph Howton, his heirs, Executor, Administrators shall during the natural lives of the above named Jonathan Howton and Ann E. Howton, his wife, the father and mother of the said Joseph Howton, furnish them with a decent and comfortable support and maintenance to consist of meat, drink, apparel, and lodgin, and also to provide them a good and comfortable house to dwell in, furnish a sufficiency of fire wood and of every other article to render them comfortable and to their death bury them in a decent manner then this obligation to be void or else to remain in full force and virtue...
Jonathan possessed a spirit of adventure and rebellion no doubt. On 3/7/1825 he had to appear in Circuit Court in Hopkins Co, KY. The document reads: "Jonathan Howton...did profanely swear two proafane oath(s) by using the words "By God at two (several) times," contrary to the form of the statute in such can make and provided against the peace and dignity of the Commonwealth aforesaid. (See Jonathan and Ann Trover Howton Descendants for the children of this family).
author Bertie Ruffin, 507 Warpath Rd. Columbus, MS 39701 and written by Sabra Newell Sudberry, pg 272 of article that Jackie sent to Jennifer Marlow
note:
many of the Howtons, including Jonathan Howton, are buried in Hell's Half-Acre Cemetery. Located in the northwest part of Hopkins County in an area known as "Lynn Land". Cemetery consists of 75 graves or so with
no markers but sandstone markers which contain no inscriptions. It gets its name from tales that were told
about spirits that haunt the area known as Hell's Half Acre.
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It was high fashion in the early 1880s to 1920s to try to connect an American family's ancestry to British nobility. F.W. Howton (Erica Howton's father) remembers hearing about ancestors going so far as to hire a genealogist to connect the Howtons of Kentucky with the Houghtons of Houghton Castle, England -- and a share of the (theoretical) inheritance.
Not only did that project fail, but 1828, 1869, 1912 and current DNA projects trying to connect American Houghtons (as in Houghton-Mifflin Publishing) with the British noble Hoghton family of Preston's Hoghton Tower (and the latter's connection to William the Conqueror) have all failed, too.5,6 |