Arthur Middleton RTHUR MIDDLETON was born at Middleton Place, the residence of his father, in South Carolina, in 1743. His father, Henry Middleton, was of English descent, and a wealthy plan ter, and he gave his son every opportunity for mental and moral culture which the Province afforded, until he arrived at a proper age to be sent to England for a thorough education. This, as we have before observed, was a prevailing custom among the men of wealth in the southern provinces, previous to the Revolution, and their sons consequently became political and social leaders, on account of their superior education. Arthur Middleton was sent to England, when he was about twelve years of age, and was placed in a school at Hackney.* At fourteen he was transferred to a school in Westminster, where he remained four years, and then entered the University at Cambridge. While there, he shunned the society of the gay and dissipated, and became a very close and thoughtful student. He remained at Cambridge four years, and at the age of twenty-two, he graduated with distinguished honors. He carried with him, from that institution, the sincere respect and esteem of professors and students. Young Middleton remained in England some time after leaving Cambridge, for the twofold purpose of selfimprovement and of forming acquaintances with the branch of his family that remained there. He then went to the continent, and for two years he travelled and made observations of men, and manners, and things, in southern Europe. He passed several months at Rome where his highly-cultivated mind became thoroughly schooled in the theory of the fine arts, and made him quite proficient as a painter. Mr. Middleton returned to South Carolina, in 1768, and very soon afterward married an accomplished young lady, named Izard. About a year after this event, he took his young wife and made a second tour on the continent of Europe, and spent some time in England. They' returned in 1773, and, by the indulgence of his father, he took the family seat for his residence. There in the possession of wealth and every domestic enjoyment, he had a bright prospect of worldly happiness. But even * Several of the Southern members of Congress received their education at this school, preparatory to their entering the college at Cambridge. then the dark clouds of the Revolution were gathering, and in less than two years the storm burst upon the South, as well as all along the Atlantic sea-board, with great fury. Men could not remain neutral, for there was no middle course, and Arthur Middleton, as well as his father, laid their lives and fortunes upon the altar of patriotism. When the decision was made and the die was cast, Mr. Middleton laid aside domestic ease and entered at once upon active life. He was a member of one of the committees of safety of South Carolina, appointed by the Provincial Congress in 1775. In that body he was firm and unyielding in principle, and when, soon afterward, Lord William Campbell was appointed governor, and it was discovered that he was acting with duplicity, Mr. Middleton laid aside all private feeling, and recommended his immediate arrest.* This proposition was too bold to meet the views of the more timid majority of the committee, and the governor was allowed to flee from the State.t In the winter of 1776, Mr. Middleton was one of a committee appointed to form a government for South Carolina; and early in the spring of that year he was elected by the Provincial Legislature, a delegate to the General Congress, at Philadelphia. There he was an active promoter of the measures tending toward a severance of the Colonies from Great Britain, and voted for and signed the Declaration of Independence. By this pa * Lord William Campbell was nearly related to Mr. Middleton's wife, and the greatest intimacy existed between the families. But private feelings and close ties of relationship had no weight in the scale against Mr. Middleton's convictions of duty, and he was among the first to recommend meetings to destroy the power of the governor. ↑ Had the proposition of Mr. Middleton been carried into effect, much bloodshed might have been saved in South Carolina, for Lord Campbell, after his flight joined Sir Henry Clinton, and representing the tory interest as very powerful in that State, induced that commander, in connection with the fleet of Sir Peter Parker, to ravage the coast and make an attack upon Charleston. In that engagement Lord Campbell was slain. triotic act, he placed himself in a position to lose life and property, should the contest prove unsuccessful, but these considerations had no weight with him. Mr. Middleton continued a member of Congress until the close of 1777, when he returned to South Carolina. In 1778, the Assembly adopted a State Constitution, and Arthur Middleton was elected first governor under it. Doubting the legality of the proceedings of the Assembly in framing the constitution, he declined the acceptance of the appointment. When, in 1779, South Carolina was invaded by the British, Mr. Middleton's property was exposed to their ravages. Yet he heeded not the destruction that was wrought, but joining Governor Rutledge in his attempts to defend the State, he left his estate entirely unprotected and only wrote to his wife to remove with the family a a day's journey from the scene of strife. In this invasion a large portion of his immense estate was sacrificed. The following year, after the surrender of Charleston to the British, he was one of the many influential men who were taken prisoners and sent to St. Augustine in Florida. There he remained about one year, and was then sent, as an exchanged prisoner, to Philadelphia. He was at once elected by the Assembly of South Carolina, a representative in Congress, and he remained there until November, 1782, when he returned to his family. He was a representative in his State Legislature until near the close of 1787, when disease removed him from his sphere of usefulness. By exposure he contracted an intermittent fever, which he neglected until it was too late to check its ravages upon his constitution. He died on the first day of January, 1788. He left his wife a widow with eight children. She lived until 1814, and had the satisfaction of seeing her offspring among the honored of the land. Button Gwinn 24 UTTON GWINNETT was born in England, in 1732. The pecuniary means of his parents were limited, yet they managed to give him a good common education. He was apprenticed to a merchant in Bristol, and after completing his term of service, he married, and commenced business on his own account. Allured by the promises of wealth and distinction in America, he resolved to emigrate hither, and he arrived at Charleston, in South Carolina, in the year 1770. There he commenced mercantile business, and after pursuing it for two years, he sold out his stock, moved to Georgia, and purchased large tracts of land on St. Catharine's Island in that province. He purchased a number of slaves, and devoted himself to agricultural pursuits. Mr. Gwinnett favored the opposition of the Colonies to British oppression, to some degree, yet he was one of those cautious, doubting men at that time, who viewed the success of the colonies in an open rupture with the home government, as highly problematical. Therefore, when, in 1774, Georgia was solicited to unite her voice with the other colonies in a General Congress, Mr. Gwinnett looked upon the proposition with disfavor, as one fraught, with danger and many evils. But falling in with Doctor Lyman Hall, and a few other decided patriots, his judgment became gradually convinced that some powerful movement was necessary, and at length he came out before the people, as one of the warmest advocates of unbending resistance to the British Crown. His culti |