Henry 'Hal' Middleton

Henry was the great-grandson of Arthur Middleton, Signer of the US Declaration of Independence, and the last Middleton to be born at Middleton Place (Plantation)*, Charleston, South Carolina, USA. (History of Middleton Place is below)

US Census 1870

• First name(s) Henry
• Last name Middleton
• Gender Male
• Age 19
• Birth year 1851
• Birth place South Carolina
• Race White Residence South Carolina, United States City/township Charleston, ward 2 County Charleston State South Carolina Record set US Census 1870

Hal left Middleton Place, his family home, and moved to England to study engineering and mathematics at Cambridge* University, Cambridge.

November 1878-May 1879 Letters from Henry "Hal" Middleton at Cambridge to his parents, Williams and Susan Middleton, , [Rutgers University - Middleton Place Foundation, Charleston, S.C.: Henry Middleton (1851-1932) Papers].

His parents' former prosperity was decimated after the Civil War. Many of his letters home talked about his lack of funds for living and for experiments, in comparison with with his Cambridge Univ. colleague Thomas Edison, whom he viewed as his competitor.

Married Mary Heatly (born Jersey, Channel Islands) and they had twelve children. Hal also fathered three children out of wedlock.

In 1885 he was living at Woburn Square, London, Middlesex

1888 Passenger on board the ss Gallia bound for New York

1891 Census lists him as a Civil Mechanical, Electrical Engineer And Inventor

Census of 1891 for Eton, Buckinghamshire, England

• Schedule Type: Household
• Ecclesiastical Parish: St Lawrence
• Parish: Upton With Chalvey
• County: Buckinghamshire

1. Henry Middleton Head Married Male 39 1852 born United States, South Carolina (Charleston)
2. Mary Middleton Wife Married Female 32 1858. Born Jersey, Channel Islands
3. Helen A Middleton Daughter Single Female 6 1885 - Woburn Square, London, Middlesex, England
4. Maud M(uriel) Middleton Daughter Single Female 5 1886 - Slough, Buckinghamshire, England (Birth registered in Eton, Buckinghamshire)
5. Henry Middleton Son Single Male 3 1888 - Slough, Buckinghamshire, England
6. Arthur J W Middleton Son Single Male 2 1889 - Slough, Buckinghamshire, England
7. Algernon W Middleton Son Single Male 1 1890 - Slough, Buckinghamshire, England
8. Reginald R D Middleton Son Single Male 0

• + 2 servants

[1901 Census - 1 Walsingham Road, ]

• Henry b United States
• Mary b Jersey, Channel Islands

1. HELEN, b. London
2. MAUD, b. Slough, Buckinghamshire, England. (All the younger children born there as well.)
3. HARRY (born Henry)
4. ARTHUR,
5. ALGY (Algernon), 11
6. RIGGY (Reginald), 10
7. GEORGE, 9
8. EDWARD, 7
9. LILY,
10. EMILY,
11. DOROTHY, b.1898, November, Slough, Buckinghamshire - she married Mr. Cousens and emigrated to Canada.
12. HAL,
13. RONALD,
14. NORMAN,
15. CATHERINE 10 mths old

At Cambridge University, England, Henry studied mathematics and experimental physics with James Clerk Maxwell, and became an inventor of "instruments or mechanical contrivances". [Page 653, "The Scientific Letters and Papers of James Clerk Maxwell: 1874-1879 By James Clerk Maxwell"]

He worked as a student at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge and then visited for several years as a 'Fellow-Commoner' of the university. (The Laboratory came into use in October 1873, and was formally opened in June 1874.)

A contemporary of Thomas Edison, Henry believed deeply that Edison was merely a 'tradesman'.

[Citation by Isobel Falconer, "Building the Cavendish and time at Cambridge",in Raymond Flood, Mark McCartney and Andrew Whitaker (eds), James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879) (Oxford University Press, 2013)]:

• Middleton, Henry
• At practical work Lent 1878,
• in laboratory 1879
• Fellow Commoner at St John’s College, Mar. 1879
• Engineer.
• Inventor of a steam tricycle and electric bicycle

Invention of a "safe" submarine:

"HENRY MIDDLETON, a London inventor, has .... patented a submarine from which it appears possible for the crew to escape if the machinery should get out of order while the boat is at the bottom of the sea. The conning tower is a detachable compartment, which can be separated from the boat proper by compressed air. It is lighter than water, so that, when detached, it rises to the surface, and its top, projecting above the water, becomes visible to rescuers. The inventor claims also for his boat that it can be submerged quicker than the present type of submarines. The craft has two pairs of fins at the sides, worked by electricity. They act like the fins of a fish in propelling the boat, while, according as they are inclined up or down, they cause the vessel to sink or rise. A large crew is not necessary. All the work can be done by one man, who stands at a table on which are several letters. He directs the movements of the submarine by turning a handle or pressing a button. “Experts say the only drawback to my invention is expense, but they admit that it will work. It is the result of eighteen years of study and experiments."

[Source: December 1906 "The Steamship" Volume 18, Page 222]

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• MIDDLETON PLACE is a National Historic Landmark and a carefully preserved 18th-century plantation that has survived revolution, Civil War, and earthquake.

It was the home of four important generations of Middletons, beginning with

• *Henry Middleton: The plantation 'Middleton Place' was established in 1741 by Henry Middleton - President of the First Continental Congress;
  • Arthur, a Signer of the Declaration of Independence;
  • Henry, Governor of South Carolina and an American Minister to Russia; and
  • Williams, a signer of the Ordinance of Secession.

The Civil War and the great earthquake of 1886 had taken its toll, and Middleton Place Gardens lay overgrown and neglected. Henry did not want to deal with it, and he remained in England, so the Middleton Estate passed to his sister Lilly, who married a Mr. Haywood. Middleton Place Estate is in Charleston, South Carolina, USA. With no direct heirs, Lilly Haywood bequeathed it went to her young cousin, the Charleston lawyer, John Julius Pringle Smith (grandson of her mother's brother by the same name, but also a Middleton descendent) in 1915. J.J. and his wife Heringham moved into the south flanker, making it their winter home for succeeding decades. In 1974, J.J. Pringle Smith's heirs established the non-profit Middleton Place Foundation, which now owns the Middleton Place National Historic Landmark.