Another family which came to the south was that of John Houston of Tyrone County, Ireland. Ross was the maiden name of John’s wife. The couple brought with them their three Sons and two daughters. Three other sons were added to the family in America.

This family seems to have been somewhat above average in wealth and social position. Through some disaster, the nature of which is not revealed, these Houstons lost most of their possessions on the voyage to America. As a mark of the family standing, a few items which were saved and doubtless became family heirlooms, such as silverware and linens, were marked with a family crest.

The family records, carried by the eldest son, John, were lost in the disaster, a fact which might have contributed to the loss of a considerable inheritance. According to Samuel Rutherford Houston, "By right of primgeniture he [son John] was entitled to an estate valued at $50,000; but it was never ob.tained in consequence of neglect or unskilled management." It is not stated as to whether this estate was from the Houston or the Ross side of the family. There are other legends of claims to estates in the old country, none of which seem to have materialized.

This family of Houstons arrived in South Carolina around the year 1750. This was about the time that Baronet John Houstoun VI died childless in Renfrewshire, Scotland, and the title of baronet passed to his Georgia nephew, Sir Patrick Houstoun, as related in another chapter. However, the aristocratic Houstouns of Og]ethorp’s colony on the south side of the lower Savannah River probably knew little about the Scotch-Irish Houstons who followed the valley of the Savannah northwestward beyond the coastal plains, now fully settled, to areas where land was fertile but still cheap.