Adam Houghton

Adam Houghton (died 13 February 1389), also known as Adam de Houghton, was Bishop of St David's from 1361 until his death and Lord Chancellor of England from 1377 to 1378.

A Doctor of Laws and an advocate of the Court of Arches, he was also sent on missions to France for King Edward III. In April 1377, with the Caroline War going badly for the English, Edward sent Houghton to seek a peace settlement with Charles V of France, but in June Edward died, and Houghton was recalled. In 1380 he helped to negotiate the marriage of King Richard II to Anne of Bohemia.

Early life

It was long reported, by a local tradition dating at least from the 16th century, that Houghton had been born in Dewisland, or the immediate neighbourhood of St David's, although from his name he is plainly of an English or Anglo-Norman family. There is a long-standing local claim that the farm of Caerforiog, in the parish of Whitchurch, Pembrokeshire, was his birthplace, and this is stated as a fact in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, although Wilkinson's The Chancery under Edward III reports that there is "slender evidence" for it. In 1856 a small medieval building survived at Caerforiog, then in use as an outhouse, which had a doorway with an ogee head, possibly dating from the 14th century.

He was educated at the University of Oxford, and by 1340 had graduated Doctor of Laws. In 1338, an Adam de Houton, clerk of Oxford, was accused of wounding a man named John le Blake of Tadyngton, and Anthony Wood thought it likely this was Houghton.

Career

Houghton gained the office of precentor in St David's Cathedral, to which he was admitted on 26 December 1339. In June 1344, Houghton and Geoffrey Scrope were in dispute with the university of Oxford over elections.