William C. Houston (381)

William Churchill Houston (1746–12 August 1788) was an attorney, slaveholder, and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1780. Born in Cabarrus County, North Carolina, Houston studied at the Poplar Tent Academy before attending the College of New Jersey, where he taught grammar school on the side to fund his studies. Graduating with an A.B. degree in 1768, he became master of his grammar school and senior tutor. He later received an M.A. degree (1771) and became first professor of mathematics and natural philosophy; he held these positions until the outbreak of the Revolutionary War. During the war, Houston proved an active an able revolutionary: he served as Deputy Secretary of the Continental Congress (1775-1776), Captain of the Somerset County Foot Militia (1776), member of New Jersey Provincial Congress (1776), and the New Jersey Assembly (1777-1779), and a member of the New Jersey Council of Safety (1778). Joining Continental Congress in 1779, Houston remained equally busy, somehow simultaneously studying law and earning admittance to the bar in 1781. From 1782 to 1785 he worked as receiver of Continental taxes, and during this time also established a law practice in Trenton and served once again in Continental Congress (1784-1785). He joined the Annapolis Convention of 1786 and represented New Jersey at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia until he began to suffer from tuberculosis. Setting off to return to his native North Carolina in the hopes of a peaceful recovery, Houston died in an inn outside of Philadelphia.