10 Jan. 1857–17 Aug. 1945
Doughton was educated in the local schools and at Independence (Va.) High School. In 1879–80 he studied law at The University of North Carolina and in the fall of the latter year was licensed to practice. Settling in Sparta, the county seat of mountainous Alleghany County, the "tall and raw-boned" Doughton soon became a prominent local attorney. A Democrat, he was first elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives in 1887. Reelected many times, he subsequently served in the lower house of the General Assembly in the sessions of 1889, 1891, 1903, 1907, 1909, 1911, 1913, 1915, 1917, 1919, 1921, 1923, and 1933. In 1891 he was chosen speaker of the house and in 1892 was elected lieutenant governor, serving in that capacity from 1893 to 1897. In the Fusion-dominated General Assembly of 1897, Doughton was the nominee of the Democratic caucus for the U.S. Senate, but polled fewer votes (33) than either of his rivals, Jeter Pritchard (88), Republican, and Cyrus Thompson (43), Populist.
As a member of the house, Doughton supported enactment of the Watts Bill of 1903 banning the manufacture and sale of intoxicating beverages outside of incorporated towns and in 1907 led the house faction opposed to a controversial railroad rate bill championed by the more progressive Democrats. Especially interested in fiscal matters, he served often during his long legislative career as chairman of the house Finance Committee. As such, he was an ex officio member of the state's first budget commission in 1919. In the same year he helped to secure passage of the Revaluation Act, which introduced important reforms in the state's revenue structure.
In 1921 Governor Cameron Morrison appointed Doughton to the recently reorganized and enlarged State Highway Commission, a position he held while continuing to serve as a member of the General Assembly. Two years later, however, he relinquished his house seat to accept appointment as state commissioner of revenue. He was subsequently twice (1924, 1928) elected to the office. In 1929 Governor O. Max Gardner appointed him chairman of the State Highway Commission, a post he held until 1931.
At the close of the 1933 General Assembly, Doughton retired from active politics. In his declining years he devoted much of his time to the banking business, serving as president or on the board of directors of several banks in the northwestern section of the state. He died in Sparta at the age of eighty-eight and was buried in Shiloh Cemetery.
Doughton married Sue B. Parks of Alleghany County on 3 Jan. 1883. The couple had two children, James Kemp and Annie (Mrs. Sidney Thomas). Doughton was a Mason, a member of the Methodist church, and for fifty-six years (1889–1945) a trustee of The University of North Carolina.