Arthur Middleton, Signer of the Declaration from South Carolina

Manuscript document, on a slip (3 3/8 x 7 7/8 in.; 84 x 200 mm) cut from a larger sheet of paper, [Philadelphia], 20 May 1782, being a note of payment directed to John Thorp authorizing him "to pay Mrs. Ferguson or order at five months after date two hundred dollars, & charge the same to the State of South Carolina," also signed by Middleton's South Carolina congressional colleagues John Rutledge and David Ramsay, endorsed on the verso by Ann Ferguson in acknowledgment that she has "Recd. the Contents in full"; inlaid, repaired at bottom margin affecting counter-signature of J. Morris, four tiny pinholes.

Thomas F. Madigan (likely obtained in the 1930s by this leading dealer in American historical autographs, for the complete set of letters, documents, and signatures of the 56 Signers of the Declaration assembled by) — Thomas J. Watson (chairman and CEO of IBM; the full sold, 1951, through autograph dealer Foster Cannon to) — the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company, Milwaukee (the full set sold, 1968, again through Cannon to) — King V. Hostick (Springfield, Illinois, collector and dealer, who exhibited the collection at the First Federal Bank of Chicago during the Bicentennial; the full set sold, 1991, to) — the Gilder Lehrman Collection

See Joseph E. Fields, "The Autographs of Arthur Middleton," in Autograph Collectors' Journal 17 (1952): 2–17 (Dr Joseph Fields, discussing the rarity of Middleton's signature, wrote: Even Dr Thomas Addis Emmet, a collector of signers for sixty years who had the choice of the best … was satisfied with a Middleton signed with initials.")

A VERY GOOD WAR DATE DOCUMENT SIGNED AT THE SEAT OF OF GOVERNMENT BY ONE OF THE SCARCEST OF THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. Arthur Middleton (1742–1787) was a leader of the Revolution in South Carolina, serving in the colony's House of Assembly and in its first two provincial congress, as well as being a member of the local Council of Safety. He signed the Declaration and was repeatedly reelected to the Continental Congress, although his attendance was irregular. While serving in the militia during the siege of Charleston, 1780, he was captured by the British and imprisoned in St. Augustine. Middleton was exchanged as a prisoner of war in July 1781 and resumed his seat in Congress, where he was serving when the present document was signed.

During the Revolution John Rutledge (1739–1800) was elected not only to the Continental Congress, but as President of South Carolina. He was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention and the second chief justice of the United States Supreme Court. Although David Ramsay served in Congress, his true vocations were medicine and history. He was a field surgeon for the South Carolina militia and published two early histories of the war: The History of the American Revolution (2 vols.; Philadelphia, 1789) and The History of the Revolution of South-Carolina, from a British Province to an Independent State (2 vols; Trenton, 1795).