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            The Old French name was Huchon, a diminutive form of the name Hugh. In the Gaelic tongue of old Scotland, the name was Uisdean and Uistean was a variation. The Scottish designation for "son of" is Mac or Mc, and the son of Uistean was Mac Uistean which rolled off the tongue as Mac Hewiston, or Mac Huston.

            During the reign of Malcom IV, a man named Uistean removed from the County of Paduinan and took over the lands near present-day Paisley in Renfrewshire. The year was 1160, and official records concerning the man listed his place of origin as a means of identification: Anglicized as Hugo de Paduinan. He built a fortification for himself there, and those Scottish Lowlanders who kept their primitive homes nearby began to seek the protection of his castle during the raids of neighboring lairds -- a somewhat frequent occurrence. References to the origin of Houston generally ascribe it to Hugh's + tun, which was the word of the time that described an enclosure or place of safety -- although tun is from Old English/AngloSaxon. The Gaelic tongue of the time would have evolved Houston from Mac Uistean -- the son of that early landholder. Variations are Huston, Heuston, Houstoun , and Hewston, among others.        

            In feudal times, a parcel of land on which a fortified structure or castle was located was known as a barony. The laird -- sometimes called Lord by the peasants within the barony -- did not carry a title of nobility as might be implied by the term baronet. Tradition says Houston married the daughter of a Scottish chieftain, although no record exists. According to historian Amelia Williams, quoted in the book Bold Legacy by Cleburne Huston (Texian Press 1968), Hugh lead fifty of his men in the rescue of King Malcom, and bore him to safety, for which he was bestowed the rank of Scottish knight and the estate in Renfrewshire. Public records indicate the land was transferred from Sheriff Baldwin of Biggar to Hugo, and later came to be called the parish of Houston.

            The miniature map below indicates the ancestral home location in Scotland, east of Glasgow, on the west coast, in the Midlands.

            The ships lined the harbor at Belfast. The docks bustled with activity; men dragging trucks and pushing carts, sailors shouting instructions as cargo was loaded onto the ships. Women gathered children around them as best they could, keeping them out of the way, but still in the line. Having left their homes, each person on the dock hoped to be on the next ship pulling up anchor. There was talking -- quiet discussions, amidst all the shouting -- of what lay in store for the groups of people gathered at the harbor. There were families with small children in tow and families who aging parents and grandparents hoped to make the journey. There were young people traveling alone. At the front of an especially large crowd was a Presbyterian preacher who was waiting with his entire congregation to find berths on one of the sailing ships. Stacked next to each group were trunks and cloth sacks filled with as many of their worldly possessions as could be carried. Each was allowed a single trunk free of charge, but anything beyond that would be weighed to determine the surcharge for bringing it aboard. Some families were traveling lightly, hoping to save money, and trusting they could buy whatever supplies would be immediately required, once arrived in the new colony.

            Others waiting to board had no money at all -- not even enough to pay for their passage. They offered themselves as servants to those already in America, in exchange for their fare. Not all indentured servants lacked money for passage; some had simply chosen to save the fare and learn the ways of the new land under the protection and tutelage of a sponsor, intending to buy land with the money once their service was completed. Some who had neither money nor travel intentions found themselves aboard ship as well. Ship captains lacking scruples found an easy source of money through supplying the American colony with indentured servants. The labor needs on some of the larger plantations were so great that landowners regularly met incoming ships, anticipating there would be men and women on board seeking to trade their services for the price of their passage. A young man watching the bustle of activity along the harbor might be offered a tour of the ship -- a rare chance to see inside the hold of the mighty vessel, and sample the spirits in the sailor's flask. Once on board, the young man would be knocked out -- either by the alcohol or the truncheon -- then trussed, and tossed below. By the time he awakened, the ship was well at sea, the young man having been "spirited away."

            So great was the demand for passage to American, that some families hoped to avoid the delays at Belfast by traveling to Port Rush or Londonderry. There were ships to be boarded at Larne and Newry, as well. Those who would take their families through the South of Ireland might find passage at Dublin and Cork. Their destination was the same -- Philadelphia, in the American colony.

            William Houston died in 1723, having achieved things his grandfather could not even have imagined. His cousins in Scotland might have their weddings hosted by Sir John, baronet of Houston parish, but their farms would never achieve the success of William's. While his Scottish cousins might have no use for a last will, William had his legally recorded in Forseighan, in the Northern Ireland county of Armagh. During his life in Ulster he had accumulated property that he dictated through his will to be divided among his wife Jean, sons David, Hugh, John, William, and Richard, and daughters Mary and Jean. His death -- combined with the troubled economy and exorbitant new lease terms on their farmland -- eventually made the decision facing many families less difficult for William's survivors.

            The Houstons were leaving Ulster.

Houstons in North Carolina

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