Arthur Middleton
Born: June 26, 1742
Died: January 1, 1787
Colony/State: South Carolina
Occupation / Public Role: Planter, legislator, delegate to the Continental Congress
Contribution to the Founding Era: Delegate to the Continental Congress, signer of the Declaration of Independence, member of South Carolina’s revolutionary leadership, and later a prisoner of war during the Revolution.
Arthur Middleton was born at Middleton Place near Charleston, South Carolina, into one of the colony’s most prominent families. He was educated in England, including study at Westminster School and Cambridge, before returning to South Carolina in the 1760s. He entered public life through the colony’s planter and legislative class, but he developed a reputation as a more forceful Patriot than his father, Henry Middleton.
Before independence, Middleton became active in South Carolina’s revolutionary government. He served in the colonial legislature and was a member of the Council of Safety in 1775–1776, helping direct the colony’s preparations for resistance and war. The U.S. House and Britannica both place him among the leading South Carolinians involved in the move toward revolution.
In 1776, Middleton was elected to the Continental Congress, taking the place of his father. He signed the Declaration of Independence as one of South Carolina’s four signers. The National Constitution Center notes that he took his father’s place in Congress to sign the Declaration, which gives his story a nice little generational twist history does not hand out every day.
Middleton’s service to the Revolutionary cause did not end with his signature. The National Park Service notes that over the next two years he helped with work related to the Articles of Confederation and pressed Congress for more support for the southern war effort. During the war, he also served in the defense of Charleston.
When the British captured Charleston in 1780, Middleton was taken prisoner. Historical summaries from the National Park Service and the Constitution Center note that he was sent to St. Augustine, Florida, and later exchanged. That made him one of several South Carolina signers who paid for independence not only with politics and property, but with captivity.
After the war, Middleton returned to South Carolina and continued in public life, though he refused at least one later chance to return to Congress. He died in 1787. He is not as famous today as Jefferson or Franklin, but he was one of South Carolina’s substantial Revolutionary figures: planter, legislator, signer, wartime patriot, and prisoner. In a founding era full of talkers, he was one of the men who also got dragged into the hard consequences.
Related Links
- Signers of the Declaration of Independence
- Declaration of Independence
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