Middleton, Arthur, 1742-1787

Arthur Middleton (June 26, 1742 – January 1, 1787) was a planter and politician from South Carolina. A Founding Father of the United States, he signed the United States Declaration of Independence.

Born at Middleton Place, his family's plantation near Charleston, South Carolina, Middleton was educated in Britain, at Harrow School, Westminster School, and Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He studied law at the Middle Temple and traveled extensively in Europe where his taste in literature, music, and art was developed and refined. Keenly interested in Carolina, Middleton was a more radical thinker than his father, Henry Middleton. He was a leader of the American Party in Carolina and one of the boldest members of the Council of Safety and its Secret Committee. In 1776, Arthur was elected to succeed his father in the Continental Congress and subsequently was a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence. Also in 1776, he and William Henry Drayton designed the Great Seal of South Carolina. His attitude toward Loyalists was said to be ruthless, this stood in contrast to other South Carolina patriots such as Francis Marion who led the effort to reconcile with the loyalists after the war ended.

During the American Revolutionary War, Middleton served in the defense of Charleston. After the city's fall to the British in 1780, he was sent as a prisoner of war to St. Augustine, Florida (along with Edward Rutledge and Thomas Heyward Jr.), until exchanged in July the following year. Middleton died on January 1, 1787, at the age of 44 and was buried in the family tomb in the Gardens at Middleton Place.