Hmmm, the asylum.  So I checked out the Staffordshire Record Office and they were kind enough to transcribe the admission papers for him, as follows:

“Date of admission: 14 January 1865: name: Isaac Houghton aged 59, previous occupation: labourer; previous place of abode: Wolverhampton; Union chargeable: Wolverhampton Union; admitted on the authority of the justices for the county of Stafford; bodily condition: good; name of bodily disorder (if any): paralysis; form of mental disorder: chronic mania; supposed cause of insanity: hereditary; duration of existing attacks: 8 years; date of discharge or death: 5 April 1867.”

This really sounds like our Isaac Houghton, as he was from Wolverhampton.  However, his occupation surprised me, since most of the time on other records, he is listed as a clerk.  I don’t know much about mental disorders, but I was reading some cases on the Internet from the 1880s in the USA and it seems that all that were diagnosed with paralysis, were not paralysed, but often had the term “softening of the brain” or stroke-like symptoms associated with paralysis.  Those with chronic mania, not only would have the current manic symptoms, but often would have symptoms like some stroke victims’ speech problems where their words are garble or not on the same topic as the person they were conversing with.

Here is the mystery.  Isaac Houghton married a second time on 22 March 1857, to a woman 20 years his junior.  If he had his attacks for 8 years, then it would be about when this marriage took place.  Why then did she marry him?  Perhaps she got tired of waiting for him to die off and was trying to get rid of him.  Maybe he went crazy married to her.

More to come, once I access the other records at the Record Office.

My friend, Janet, was serving a mission in Salt Lake City and she told me of records that she was working with that might help.  Sure enough, I found David in an as yet unpublished index of parish registers for Wolverhampton, Staffordshire.  Because the records were indexed, I could do a given name sort on his father, Isaac, whose name was less common than David.  I found his baptism under the surname of OATEN!

John Samuel Small “Jack” Houghton was born on 10 January 1872 in Wolverhampton, Stafford, England, the fourth child of David Houghton and his wife Martha Edge.

At some time between 1877 and 1880, the family moved from Wolverhampton to Maesteg, Bridgend, Glamorgan, Wales.  Here his younger sister, Martha Miriam Houghton was born on 18 August 1880 and his younger brother James Edge Houghton died on 15 July 1881. By October 1882, the family had moved to Hanley, Stoke-upon-Trent, Stafford, England where David and Martha remained for the rest of their lives.

Jack married Alice Brayford on 8 August 1893 in Stoke-upon-Trent. Alice was born on 27 Aug 1871 in Fenton, Stafford, England, the daughter of George Brayford and his wife, Hannah Powell.

When living in Hanley, Jack ran a barber shop/tobacconist store—a usual combination in those days.  He was a handsome, outgoing man and a born entertainer.  He loved to go to the vaudeville shows and would come home and copy all the acts—juggling, sleight of hand, dancing or ventriloquism.  When he would be cutting someone’s hair and children would be waiting for their turn seated on a hinged bench, they would hear this voice in the bench calling “Let me out!” So they would jump up and open the bench—only to find it empty. Grandpa was throwing his voice!