From 1741 through the Civil War, four generations of the Middleton family successively owned Middleton Place. The list of Low Country families which Henry Middleton's children married includes Izard, Manigault, Rutledge, Drayton, Pinckney, Smith, Parker, Huger, and Blake.
In 1678, Edward Middleton emigrated from England to Barbados and from there to South Carolina, eight years after the founding of Charleston. Receiving large grants of land on Goose Creek, not far from the colonial capital, Edward settled at a plantation he named The Oaks, and served as Lords Proprietors deputy for many years. His estate passed to his son, Arthur, who also was active in public life and became president of the convention that, in 1719, overthrew the Lords Proprietors. In 1741, Arthur's son, Henry, married Mary, the only daughter and heiress of John Williams, a wealthy landowner, Justice of the Peace and member of the Assembly. Mary's dowry included the house and plantation that they named Middleton Place. Here, rather than at The Oaks, they made their home.
Henry Middleton (1717-1784)
painting by
Benjamin West
Henry Middleton, an influential political leader, was Speaker of the Commons, Commissioner for Indian Affairs, and a member of the Governor's Council until he resigned his seat in 1770 to become a leader of the opposition to British policy. Henrywas chosen to represent South Carolina in the First Continental Congress and on October 22, 1774, was elected its President.
By this time, Henry was among the wealthiest landholders in South Carolina with more than 50,000 acres and approximately 800 slaves. For the last twenty-three years of his life he lived at The Oaks, returning there after the death of his wife in 1761. Henry twice remarried, but his five sons and seven daughters were all children of his first wife. Middleton Place was relinquished to Arthur, his eldest son and heir.
Arthur Middleton was educated in England, at Hackney 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. In 1764 Arthur and his bride Mary Izard settled at Middleton Place. Keenly interested in Carolina politics, Arthur Middleton was a more radical thinker than his father. 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 Declaration of Independence. Despite the time he spent in England, his attitude toward Loyalists was said to be ruthless.
During the Revolution, Arthur 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, until exchanged in July the following year. Arthur died on January 1, 1787 at the age of 44. He was buried in the family tomb in the Gardens at Middleton Place. The plantation then passed to Henry, his eldest son.
Henry Middleton (1770-1846)
from a Henry Inman painting
This second Henry Middleton was born in London and educated in England. Widely traveled in Europe and his own country, he served in both houses of the State legislature and for a term as Governor of South Carolina (1810-1812). After serving in Congress (1815-1819) he was appointed America's Minister to Russia where he served during the entire decade of the 1820s.
Henry inherited his family's love of the land. According to family tradition, he added to plantings and enlarged the Gardens at Middleton Place. He was a friend of André Michaux, the famous French botanist who brought many exotic plants to America from France. In 1786 Michaux visited Middleton Place, bringing with him some of the first camellias to be planted in an American garden. The library in the Middleton Place House contains Thomas Walter's Flora Caroliniana (1788). In it Henry wrote: "NB. This was Michaux's copy." Henry left Middleton Place to his son, Williams.
Williams Middleton (1809-1883)
Painting by John Stolle
Williams Middleton was in Russia with his father and served as secretary for the American legation. On his return home, he pursued the family's interest in rice culture, carried out agricultural and scientific experiments and further enhanced the Gardens with the introduction of azaleas (Azalea indica). Following the example of previous generations, Williams became active in the politics of his day. He supported the idea of "states rights" and signed the Ordinance of Secession separating South Carolina from the Union. Later he supplied the Confederate cause with laborers and materials for the defense of Charleston and Fort Sumter. Henry's and Arthur's cause was successful in achieving independence; Williams' efforts were unsuccessful and resulted in the destruction of his property.
In 1865 a detachment of the 56th New York regiment occupied Middleton Place. On February 22nd, the main house and flanker buildings were ransacked and burned, the ground strewn with books, paintings and other family treasures. At the close of the war, with financial help from his sister, Eliza Middleton Fisher of Philadelphia, and with a small income from phosphate mining, Williams managed to hold on to the family plantation. The south flanker was the least damaged and Williams eventually was able to make it the family home.
Reconstruction and the 20th Century
Williams Middleton and his wife, Susan Pringle Smith, had two children, Lilly (Elizabeth) and Hal (Henry). Williams died in 1883 at the age of 74. In 1886, an earthquake leveled what remained of the main house and the north flanker, and Williams' wife, Susan, made the necessary repairs to the south flanker. Upon Susan's death in 1900, Lilly inherited Middleton Place and spent time at the plantation each year, doing what she could to improve the property. Times were difficult and there was little money to restore the gardens and house.
Lilly died in 1915 and left no direct heirs. Her will stipulated that Middleton Place was to go to her young cousin, the Charleston lawyer, John Julius Pringle Smith (grandson of her mother's brother of the same name, but also a Middleton descendant). Soon he and his wife, Heningham, moved into the south flanker, making it their winter home for succeeding decades.
The young Pringle Smiths, trying to make the property productive, raised poultry and vegetables to take to market in Charleston. But Heningham was determined to bring the Gardens of Middleton Place back to their original splendor. It has been said that she "was down on her hands and knees to find the buried bricks that outlined the garden paths." Over a period of several years, Heningham turned back the hands of time for the historic gardens. The Gardens of Middleton Place were opened to the public in the late 1920s by the Smiths. In 1941, Middleton Place received the Garden Club of America's Bulkley Award, and was named "the most interesting and important garden in the United States."
In 1972, Middleton Place was designated a National Historic Landmark by the National Park Service, as Middleton Place was the birthplace of Arthur Middleton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Then in February 1975, after the establishment of the not-for-profit Middleton Place Foundation, the Middleton Place House was opened to the public. The Middleton family is a story of struggle, growth and triumph. Middleton Place is an integral part of this American family's story, and the Middleton Place Foundation exists to preserve and interpret this portion of American history for generations to come.
Middleton Place
4300 Ashley River Road, Charleston, SC 29414
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