Arthur Middleton: Flawed Founding Father

South Carolina's Arthur Middleton (1742-1787) is probably best known as a signer the American Declaration of Independence. Visitors to Middleton Place near Charleston may recall that he owned the rice plantation there, erected by his father Henry and famed for its landscaped gardens. 

In the 1750s, his parents sent him to England to be educated, a privilege largely restricted to the sons of wealthy planters. He did his preparatory education at two of England's most prestigious "public" schools, Harrow and Westminster. He then attended university at Trinity Hall, Cambridge and the Middle Temple in London, where he studied law. 

He returned to South Carolina in the early 1760s, and married the daughter of another wealthy planter family, Mary Izard. In 1764, Arthur's father gave him Middleton Place and moved to The Oaks, a plantation near Goose Creek where he had been born.    

In 1768, Arthur and Mary went to England and did not return until 1771. Shortly before their return, the American artist Benjamin West, who had settled in Britain, painted a family portrait of Middleton with his wife Mary Izard Middleton and their infant son Henry. Ironically, West would soon become the court painter to George III, soon to be Middleton's nemesis. [Image: Arthur Middleton, and the full family portrait]

Upon his return, Arthur emerged as one of the the most radical opponents of British colonial policies. he joined the American Whig Party, who later dubbed themselves the "Patriots." He allied with his friend and neighbor, William Henry Drayton of Drayton Hall, who had swung from being a firm supporter of the Crown to one of its most vocal opponents. 

Both men served on many of the committees the extralegal Provincial Congress of South Carolina established in 1775. They used the committees to effectively run the colony and render the royal government virtually helpless, violating many laws and personal liberties in the process. 

Through the Secret Committee, they used the Sons of Liberty to harass those believed to be loyal to the Crown or neutral. Their methods of persuasion included intimidation, illegal house searches, and for the most vocal, tarring and feathering, sometimes followed by banishment from the colony. 

In early 1776, the Provincial Congress gradually turned in favor of complete independence. By this time open war between colonists and Britain had begun in New England. The Congress elected Middleton as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia. He replaced his father Henry, who was much less radical than he was. Their differences led to a serious rift in the family. 

As noted above, Arthur was among those who signed the Declaration of Independence.  A few days before that event, Patriot forces in South Carolina had repulsed a British attack on Charleston at the Battle of Sullivan's Island. It was the first major victory of the war for the Americans. 

During the next three years, the war hardly touched South Carolina. But in the late 1770s, the British adopted what they called the Southern Strategy. They captured Savannah in December 1778 and set their eyes on Charleston, then the wealthiest city in America. The city surrendered to a British and Loyalist force in May 1780. It was the worst Patriot defeat of the war, as the entire Southern Army was captured. [See The British Seize Charleston]

The surrender was also a disaster for Middleton. After landing on the Charleston peninsula, British soldiers ransacked Middleton Place, beheading many of its statues. 

Worse followed. The British arrested Middleton and about twenty others they thought were plotting further resistance. The prisoners, who included Christopher Gadsden and Edward Rutledge, were shipped to the British stronghold at St. Augustine. 

They remained in Florida until July 1781, when the British paroled them and sent them to Philadelphia. By then, the war was nearing its close. Lord Cornwallis surrendered to General Washington and a French force at Yorktown in October. 

Middleton returned to South Carolina at war's end. He died of a fever, probably malaria, at Middleton Place in January 1787 and was buried there in a tomb. [Image: Middleton's tomb at Middleton Place]

His legacy was mixed. A fervent Patriot he surely was. Yet some of the measures he supported as a member of the Secret Committee violated the very notions of liberty he espoused and he lived a life made possible by the enslavement of hundreds of his fellow beings. 

Side note: Middleton's descendants include Charles Middleton, who starred as the evil Ming the Merciless in the Flash Gordon films of the 1930s. I remember Ming well. I used to sit and watch the films on TV on Saturday mornings in the 1950s, absolutely fascinated!   

Further Reading:

John Drayton, Memoirs of the American Revolution 2 vols., Charleston, 1821. Based on documents John's father William Henry Drayton had collected prior to his death.

The Papers of Henry Laurens. 16 vols., Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1972-2003. Volumes dealing with the 1760s and 1770s.