Background
Houston was born in the Sumter District of central South Carolina circa 1746. He was a son of Margaret and Archibald Houston, who in 1753 and 1764 received patents of land in that part of North Carolina that is now Cabarrus County.
Houston was born in the Sumter District of central South Carolina circa 1746. He was a son of Margaret and Archibald Houston, who in 1753 and 1764 received patents of land in that part of North Carolina that is now Cabarrus County.
Prepared for college at the Poplar Tent academy and by Joseph Alexander, William rode off to the College of New Jersey with fifty pounds and his clothes. Teaching in the college grammar school for support, he was graduated (A. B. ) in 1768, was made master of the grammar school, and then tutor.
In 1771 he became professor of mathematics and natural philosophy. In 1776 he was recorded captain of the foot militia of Somerset County and saw active service around Princeton. He resigned on August 17, 1777. In 1775 and 1776 he was deputy secretary of the Continental Congress and the following years sat in the New Jersey Assembly, where he served on the committee to settle public accounts and acted as clerk pro tempore. In 1778 he was a member of the New Jersey Council of Safety. The next year he was elected to the Continental Congress, where he took a leading part in matters of supply and finance. Keeping up his teaching he signed, with John Witherspoon, the various advertisements as to the "State of the College" (New Jersey Gazette, May 5, October 13, 1779).
Meanwhile he had found time to study law and in 1781 was admitted to the bar. He was appointed clerk of the New Jersey supreme court the same year. He was receiver of Continental taxes in New Jersey from 1782 to 1785, took over Jonathan Dickinson Sergeant's affairs at Trenton in 1782, and in that year served on the commission to adjust for New Jersey troops the deficiencies in pay due to depreciated currency, on a committee to prevent trade with the enemy, and on the commission that issued the famous "Trenton decree" in the attempt to settle the Wyoming land disputes between Connecticut and Pennsylvania.
In 1783 he resigned from the college, receiving "the thanks of the Board" at Commencement, and built up a considerable law practice at Trenton. In 1784 and 1785 he again served in Congress, where he interested himself in John Fitch's steamboat. He was a delegate at the Annapolis Convention and then at the Philadelphia Federal Convention. He did not sign the Constitution but did sign the report to the New Jersey legislature. Worn out and ill with tuberculosis he traveled south to recover but died suddenly at Frankford, Pa.
Houston was elected in 1785 to the American Philosophical Society.
His wife was Jane (Smith), the granddaughter of Jonathan Dickinson, the first president of the College of New Jersey. They had two sons and two daughters.
