Summary
Arthur Middleton took his father’s place in the Continental Congress to sign the Declaration in 1776. He fought against the British, was captured and later released.
Arthur Middleton | Signer of the Declaration of Independence
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Biography
Arthur Middleton was the eldest son of the Honorable Henry Middleton and Mary Williams Middleton. His mother was the daughter of a wealthy landowner and a member of the South Carolina Assembly. His father’s wealth came from Arthur’s great grandfather who emigrated to the low country and became a large landowner. His father increased the fortune and became one of the most influential and politically active men in the province. As the eldest son, Arthur could expect to inherit the lion’s share of Henry’s 20 plantations that covered 50,000 acres and were worked by about 800 enslaved men and women. Henry held royal offices until his opposition to British policy led him to resign and become a leader of the colonies’ independence movement. He served in the First Continental Congress but soon wanted to go home, confident that his son Arthur would take his place when he left.
Arthur Middleton, as befit his social status, was tutored at home and sent to private schools in Charleston. But at the age of twelve he was sent to England to complete his education. He was a student at two prestigious schools and graduated from Cambridge in 1760 at the age of eighteen. He was a serious scholar who avoided the rowdy behavior of many of his classmates. He went on to study law at the Middle Temple and then toured Europe for two years. There, he developed a taste for music, painting, sculpture, and architecture.
He returned to South Carolina in 1763 as the first signs of discontent toward British policy appeared. He married Mary Izard the following year. Mary, whose own family boasted distinguished and socially elite members, was, a friend wrote, “a lady who is one of the first of her sex for sense, politeness and every female accomplishment.”
Middleton’s public service began in 1765 when he became a member of the colony’s House of Commons (the legislature). He served here until 1768, but, in 1770, he and his wife left for a three-year tour of Europe. On his return, he served once more in the House of Commons where he had a reputation as a leader of “the American Party”. This marked him as far more radical than his father. As the protest against Britain grew, Arthur Middleton supported tarring and feathering opponents of independence and the confiscation of the estates of men loyal to the Crown who fled South Carolina in fear of imprisonment or physical harm.
Middleton helped draft the state’s first constitution and designed South Carolina’s state seal. As expected, he took his father’s place in the Continental Congress and spoke frequently and forcefully for independence. After signing the Declaration of Independence, he returned home to serve as an officer in the state militia.
The British army’s campaign in South Carolina led to the destruction of Middleton’s estate. It stole everything of value and destroyed what they could not carry away. Middleton and his family escaped arrest by fleeing to Charleston, but when Charleston fell, he and fellow Signers Edward Rutledge and Thomas Heyward were captured and imprisoned for almost a year in St. Augustine, Florida. In July 1781, Middleton was freed in a prisoner exchange, and he quickly reentered politics as a State Senator. In 1783, Middleton retired at last. He died of a fever in 1787 at the age of 44.
The State Gazette of South Carolina eulogized him as a “tender husband and parent, . . . steady unshaken patriot, the gentleman, and the scholar.” Benjamin Rush of Pennsylvania described Middleton “as a man of cynical temper but upright intentions toward his country.” Others called him a capricious aristocrat but a public-spirited one.
