Carver
John Houghton was one of the most important architectural carvers working in Ireland in the first half of the eighteenth century and is known for his work with Sir Edward Lovett Pearce and Richard Castle.

Parliament House
1729-39
Houghton worked on the most important public commission in early eighteenth-century Ireland, designed by Edward Lovett Pearce, carving the the Ionic capitals of the external colonnade and the royal coat-of-arms in the pediment.

Carton House, Co. Kildare
1739
The remodelling of Carton, the seat of the earls of Kildare, in 1739 by Richard Castle, saw Houghton collaborating with fellow carver John Kelly on the earl’s coat of arms in the pediment.