Middleton Place, 4300 Ashley River Road, Knightsville

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS SC,18-____,3-. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Plantations of the Carolina Low Country by Samuel Gaillard Stoney. Historical Data: Because of the restricted pi-Bn and plain exterior of the house, the Middleton family seem to have held it in no peculiar esteem. According to the "Lives of the Signers", Arthur Middleton would even have sacrificed it at a cost, for when walking in the garden one day, he received a message from his wife that the house v.as afire. He only took time to determine that the atmosphere v;as calm and that the wings could not be endangered, then sent word back to "let it burn" .and continued his walk. Middleton saved the house, however, for a similar fate a lifetime later at the of the Federal Trooos. - HAES Ho. SC- /$ ?age 2.

Henry Middleton, brother of rilliam Middieton of Crorfield, married in iltery, daughter and heiress of John rilli^ms nd the Ashley Piver Plantation thus became one of the twenty or,ned by Middleton. In initials HM were cut into n brick on the sur- viving flanker, nov; residence at Middleton Place; Henry enlarged his establishment to ecliuse that of his brother at CroYcfield, In Villiam Middle ton restored v;hat was salvageable of the flunks'" and placed his initials >md the date beside those of his great grandfather, Arthur Mi^dleton, the Sifmer. His son Governor Henry Middleton. and his grandson, Yfllliam Middle ton, planted most of the exotics that now overrun much of the garden.

Jndre Mechaux the botanical explorer for Louis XVI of France, is said to hsve here introduced the first Camellia Jaoonica in South Carolina, Middleton Place has never left the possession of the family v-ho glorified it with terraces and flowers. -# XJG toliski