John Houghton

John Houghton (1645–1705) was an English apothecary and writer on agriculture and trade, a Fellow of the Royal Society. Life Houghton studied for a time at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. He subsequently became an apothecary and dealer in tea, coffee, chocolate, and other luxuries. First he traded by the Ship Tavern in St Bartholomew Lane, St Bartholomew-by-the-Exchange, behind the Royal Exchange. By 14 December 1703 he was at the Golden Fleece, on the corner of Little Eastcheap in Gracechurch Street, London. A kind of agent for advertisers, Houghton had his newspaper advertisements appended to his Collections. On 19 July 1695, Houghton printed the first personal ad from a man seeking a wife in A Collection for Improvement of Husbandry and Trade, initiating the "lonely hearts" industry. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society. on 29 January 1680, and served on the society's committee for agriculture. He died in 1705. Works Houghton edited a periodical, A Collection of Letters for the Improvement of Husbandry & Trade, published as two vols. London, 1681–3. The authors of the letters included John Evelyn and John Worlidge. Houghton first noticed the potato plant as an agricultural vegetable, and that turnips were eaten by sheep.