The branch of the Houghton family from which Judge Houghton is descended migrated from England in 1650 and settled at Lancaster, Massachusetts, then a part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. This colonial ancestor, John Houghton, and his descendants, Jonas, James, James, Jr., and Nathaniel, all lived in that immediate locality. His grandfather, Tilley Houghton, settled in Corinth in 1800 and died there, leaving several children, among them Tilley, Jr., and Dr. Nathaniel. The Houghtons remained residents of that town until their deaths.
James Warren, son of Tilley, Jr., and Charlotte (Dayton) Houghton, was born at Corinth, New York, September 1, 1856. He was graduated from Canandaigua Academy, 1876; studied law, and was admitted to the bar at Rochester, New York, in 1879. He began practice of the law at Saratoga Springs in 1880, was elected judge of Saratoga county, New York, in 1888, and re-elected successively until 1899, when he resigned, having been appointed to the supreme bench of the state of New York by Governor Roosevelt in December, 1899. In 1900 he was elected a justice of the supreme court of the state of New York for the fourth judicial district, for a full term of fourteen years. In September, 1903, he was designated to serve as associate justice, appellate division, third department, and relieved from this designation, October 28, 1905, and immediately designated associate justice, appellate division, first department, and on January 1, 1910, he was again designated to serve as associate justice of the appellate division, third department. Judge Houghton married, 1884, Elizabeth M. Smith, of Saratoga Springs, and has a son, James T., recently graduated from Harvard Medical College, and a daughter, Elizabeth.