Hello tortiegirl,
Sorry for the delay in replying. As I said previously, I hit the 'brick wall' a while ago and had put this part of my family down for a while. Seeing these postings got me interested again and I have been trying to gather and shuffle all the odd pieces of paper etc with anything to do with the name Houghton on, that I'd saved along the way with certs & census, to see if it matches any of your info. I still have lots to see if there's any connection, but I'm slightly confused over the JOSHUA & JENNET HOUGHTON info you have. When I started genealogy, a relative had already started and had Joshuas parents as THOMAS b.1759 & ELIZABETH CLARKSON b. 1763, married in 1782, but it seems they are not the right ones. Then we got stuck, so back to the drawing board!! What we had collected was :-
JOSHUA [my g-g-g-grandad] was born 14th sept.1810, Thurnham [christened 7th oct Cockerham]. parents THOMAS & ELIZABETH HOUGHTON
JOSHUA married JENNET HOLDEN 24th nov. 1834
On 1841C they are living in Scotforth Village and JOSHUA is a Journeyman Stonemason, they have:
THOMAS b. 1836
BETTY b. 1837
JOSEPH b. 1840
JENNET died 23rd sept. 1841 aged 28 in Scotforth. On death cert it has, cause of death--Child Bed, wife of Joshua Houghton, Stone Mason.
JOSHUA then married MARY ARMISTEAD 1st mar. 1846. On m. cert it has JOSHUA, Stonemason, his father, THOMAS HOUGHTON, labourer. They had:-
JAMES b. 1846 [my g-g-grandad]
JOHN b. 1850
JOSHUA [stonemason] died 10th apr. 1857 aged 46. living in Henry st, Lancaster.
There is another JOSHUA HOUGHTON born 1807
On the 1851C he is a farm lab. unmarried [44], living at Thurnham Moss with his parents JOHN [68] & MARGARET[67] and brother ROBERT [28] All are born Thurnham.
On 1861C he is a Dock lab. still single, living at Kendall Hill Cottage. MARGARET is the Head/wid, ROBERT is not there, but another brother JAMES [43] is.
On 1871C he is still a dock lab and single. Margaret is 87. JAMES is not there, but a g/son JAMES [14] is
This has definitely got me interested again!! I have other HOUGHTONS who were in Thurnham at around the same time but so many names, dates etc, not sure what relation they may be. If you would like any more of this info I'll be happy to give.