A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Houlton, Robert
HOULTON. (Retired Commander, 1840. f-p., 10; h-p., 47.)
Robert Houlton is second son of the late Joseph Houlton, Esq., of Farley Castle, co. Somerset, a Captain in the Army, by Dorothea Sarah, daughter of Chas. Torriano, Esq., Capt. R.A.; and brother (with the present Sir Geo. Houlton, Kt., late Capt. 43rd Regt.) of John Houlton, Esq., Colonel of the 1st Regt. of Somerset Militia, and a Deputy-Lieutenant for that co., who died 17 Feb. 1839 – of Lieut. Joseph Houlton, of the 40th Regt. of Infantry, who died in 1795 – and of Capt. Sam. Houlton, of the 11th Regt. of Native Infantry, who died at Dinapore, in the East Indies, in 1827.
This officer entered the Navy, in 1790, as a Volunteer, on board the Bellona 74, Capt. Fras. John Hartwell, guard-ship at Spithead, and after serving with Capt. Thos. Elphinstone, in the Swan and Atalanta sloops, joined, in 1792, the Courageux 74, Capt. Hon. Wm. Waldegrave. After that ship had assisted in the occupation of Toulon, and had been disabled in an engagement at Corsica, Mr. Houlton, while she was being hove down, was sent in the Moselle sloop to Gibraltar for ammunition. On his return to Toulon he was unfortunately captured by the enemy, who detained him in France until 1796. He was then appointed Master’s Mate of the Glenmore 36, Capt. Geo. Duff, stationed in the North Sea; and on 18 May, 1797, he was made Lieutenant into the Triton 32, Capt. John Gore, attached to the force on the French coast. Invaliding, however, in the following year, he did not again go afloat until Dec. 1805, on 15 of which month he obtained an appointment to L’Impétueux 74, Capt. John Lawford, off Brest. In 1806 he joined the Irish Sea Fencibles; and in 1807 he assumed charge of a Signal tower in co. Donegal. The latter, his last appointment, he held but a few months; a serious attack of asthma compelling him to invalid. He became a Retired Commander on the Junior List 26 Nov. 1830, and on the Senior 18 Jan. 1840. Agents – Coplands and Burnett.