# A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Houghton, Charles Evelyn

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​HOUGHTON. (Retired Commander, 1838. f-p., 11; h-p., 39.)
Charles Evelyn Houghton, born 20 Sept. 1784, is eldest son of Major Houghton, of the 69th Regiment, who lost his life in exploring the interior of Africa; grandson of Capt. Wm. Houghton, of the 3rd Light Infantry, who was wounded at the battle of Bunker’s Hill; and great-grandson of Sir Wm. Houghton, Bart., of Hoghton Tower, Lancaster. Maternally, Commander Houghton is nephew of the present Sir Hugh Evelyn, Bart., of Wotton Place; grand-nephew of the late Gen. Wm. Evelyn, Colonel of the 29th Regt., and M.P. for Helston, in Cornwall; and a descendant of the learned and distinguished John Evelyn, F.R.S., who was a Commissioner of the Navy, also Treasurer of Greenwich Hospital (to which institution he was a donor of 3000l.), and the last joint Sheriff for cos. Surrey and Sussex. One of the Commander’s brothers, Frederick, a Lieutenant R.N., was lost with Capt. F. Moore Maurice in the Magnet sloop, in 1812; and another, Ralph, a Lieutenant in the Army, died in the West Indies.
This officer entered the Navy, 9 Aug. 1797, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Standard 64, Capts. Thos. Parr and Thos. Revell Shivers, stationed in the North Sea; removed, in April, 1798, to the Blonde 32, armée en flûte, commanded by Capt. Dan. Dobree, in the Baltic, off the Texel, and on the Irish coast; and in Nov. 1799 rejoined Capt. Shivers on board the Defiance 74, flag-ship afterwards of Rear-Admiral Thos. Graves. Under the latter officer he bore a warm part, as Midshipman, in the action off Copenhagen 2 April, 1801; and at its close, when the Dannebrog, bearing the Danish Admiral’s flag, caught fire, and was drifting towards the Defiance, he was sent with the boats to tow her head round, and had actually hold of the towrope at the moment she blew up. Between Oct. 1801 and Jan. 1805 Mr. Houghton was employed, on the West India, Home, and Mediterranean stations, in the Audacious 74, Capt. Shuldham Peard, Juno 32, Capt. Henry Richardson, Triumph 74, Capt. Sir Robt. Barlow, and Drake 10, Capt. Drury. Having passed his examination in 1804, and been for six months in charge of a watch, he was then appointed Sub-Lieutenant of the Locust gun-brig, Lieut.-Commander John Lake; which vessel, in Feb. 1805, took the ground off Boulogne, while endeavouring to cut off a boat, and lay exposed for some time to a very heavy fire from 11 of the enemy’s batteries, and several thousands of their troops. Although the sails and rigging of the Locust were cut to pieces, and she was otherwise damaged, the only person hurt on board was Mr. Houghton, who received a musket-ball in the right leg. On 24 of the following April we find the same vessel uniting with the Railleur and Starling gun-brigs in an attack upon a powerful division of the invasion flotilla. Six schuyts were on that occasion captured, after a spirited resistance; and in boarding one of them Mr. Houghton was again wounded by a bayonet under the left arm. He was made full Lieutenant, on 14 Sept. in the same year, into the Regulus 44, armée en flûte, Capt. Boys, lying at Portsmouth, but continued only a few weeks in that ship, and was lastly, from 3 July, 1807, until 26 Feb. 1810, employed, in the Channel, off the coast of Portugal, and in the North Sea and Baltic, on board the Plantagenet 74, Capts. Wm. Bradley and Thos. Eyles. He accepted his present rank 17 Jan. 1838.
Commander Houghton married, in 1806, Charlotte, youngest daughter of the late Fras. Dancer, Esq., of the Treasury, and of Wealdstone House, Harrow, co. Middlesex, by whom he has issue three sons and two daughters. Agents – Messrs. Chard.