Draft:Joseph Houlton

Joseph Houlton (1637-1720) was a wealthy cloth merchant of the 17th century, and head of a substantial manufacturing and property business in Trowbridge, Wiltshire.

His grandfather John Houlton established a successful business in Bradford-on-Avon towards the end of the 16th century and was described in 1607 as one of the chief inhabitants of that town. At the time, Bradford, along with neighbouring towns including Trowbridge and Westbury, were forging a reputation as leaders in the creation of "medley", a high quality woven woollen cloth.

John Houlton was succeeded by his son Robert Houlton (b 1594), who also prospered, becoming wealthy enough in 1641 to purchase part of the large estate left by another wealthy "clothman", Edward Langford of Trowbridge, who had died some years before.

This included Langford's old house at 66-67 Fore Street (where Mary Langford, great grandmother of Queen Mary and Queen Anne was born). Houlton acquired this from Langford's heirs, the Hyde family, and also neighbouring properties including buildings on the site of what later became Parade House. Now heavily invested in Trowbridge, Robert Houlton moved his family to the town later that same year.

Robert continued as patriarch of the family business until his own death in 1669, but it was actually his youngest surviving son Joseph Houlton who increasingly took the leading role, acquiring additional property in Trowbridge and elsewhere in the surrounding area. By 1688, Joseph had accumulated around 100 acres of land in Trowbridge, Steeple Ashton and Studley, and was selected as High Sheriff of Wiltshire in 1696.

He found an able partner in his own son, also named Joseph, born in 1663. Together, in 1702, they purchased the manor of Farleigh Hungerford. Joseph II set up home on the Farleigh Hungerford estate, and rebuilt a small gabled house at Church Farm to create the first incarnation of Farleigh House, originally a comparatively modest residence.

In 1730, just a year before his death, Joseph II also purchased what was then the castle at Farleigh Hungerford, then still largely intact but unoccupied. In later years, the castle was dismantled and its interior fixtures and decorative features sold or repurposed for other buildings. Some of the oak panelling is thought to have made its way to 66-67 Fore Street, and possibly also to Parade House. In the early 1800s much of remaining stonework from the castle was removed by Houlton's heirs and was used for the lavish redevelopment of Farleigh House to form the current house. What remained of the medieval castle was left in the ruins still visible today.

Joseph Houlton II was the sole issue of Joseph I's first marriage to Eleanor Cooper of Clifford Mill in Beckington. Following Eleanor's death in around 1665, Joseph I married again to Mary Ewer.