Adam Houghton

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.

[2] There is a long-standing local claim that the farm of Caerforiog, in the parish of Whitchurch, Pembrokeshire, was his birthplace,[3] and this is stated as a fact in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography,[4] although Wilkinson's The Chancery under Edward III reports that there is "slender evidence" for it.

[6] In 1338, an Adam de Houton, clerk of Oxford, was accused of wounding a man named John le Blake of Tadyngton,[4] and Anthony Wood thought it likely this was Houghton.

[2] In 1365, with John of Gaunt, he founded, endowed, and began to build the College (or chantry) of St Mary, with the object of increasing the number of clergy and choristers, and later built the cloister which connects it to the cathedral.

[5] He also served on a Royal Commission appointed to settle disputes at the University of Oxford,[2] and at some point in his career he was in the service of the priory of Arundel.

Houghton immediately led a commission sent to France to negotiate for peace with Charles the Wise, but when in June Edward III died, he was called home.