Geographist

Button Gwinnett Born: c. 1735 (Down Hatherley, England) Died: May 19, 1777 (St. Catherine's Island, GA) This week we look at one of the Founding Fathers who, quite frankly, seemed to struggle greatly at achieving much in the way of noteworthy success.  Born on the outskirts of Gloucester in western England to a Welsh clergyman and his English wife, Samuel and Anne, Button Gwinnett's actual date of birth was never recorded.  When he was baptized at St. Catherine's Church (remember that name, it will come up again later) on April 10, 1735, he may have been as old as three years of age.  The young man's unusual first name came from an affluent relative named Barbara Button, who was his mother's cousin and became the godmother for her namesake.  Button received a reasonably good education in Gloucester before moving to Bristol to begin a career as a merchant.  While there he met and married Ann Bourne, the daughter of a business partner, and the couple had three dau...

George Clymer  Born: March 16, 1739 (Philadelphia, PA) Died: January 24, 1813 (Morrisville, PA) Happy Easter!  I hope you've enjoyed your holiday weekend and are ready to settle in for a look at another one of America's Founding Fathers.  This week we'll look at another delegate from Pennsylvania, and the first that has hailed from the largest city at the time of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Philadelphia.  George Clymer was the child of a sea captain named Christopher Clymer and his wife, Deborah.  When both parents died - his father while George was just a year old, followed by his mother at some unknown date before his 7th birthday - the boy was adopted by his mother's sister and her husband, William Coleman, and raised to be a merchant.  His education was informal but apparently of considerable quality, and he was apprenticed in an accounting house to prepare for his mercantile career.  He married Elizabeth Meredith, the daughter ...

Arthur Middleton Born: June 26, 1742 (Charleston, SC) Died: January 1, 1787 (Charleston, SC) This week we'll look at the story behind one of South Carolina's Founding Fathers, Arthur Middleton.  As the oldest child of wealthy English parents, Henry and Mary Middleton, young Arthur was privately tutored until being sent to England at the age of 12 to study.  He received his education at the best schools, including Harrow, Westminster, and St. John's College (Cambridge), before pursuing legal training at London's Middle Temple.  He traveled throughout Europe before returning home to South Carolina in 1763 at the age of 21.  The following year he married Mary Izard and settled into his family's home along Charleston's Ashley River, known as Middleton Place.  They would eventually have nine children together. Given his wealth, Arthur Middleton was free to pursue politics early in life.  Both his father, Henry Middleton, as well as Mary's father, Walter Izard, h...