Mount Pleasant Magazine May/June 2019

34 www.MountPleasantMagazine.com | www.BestOfMP.com | www.ReadMPM.com to sign an oath of allegiance to the Crown. At the time, rumors were rampant that these men were plotting to burn the town and kill Loyalists. Two decades after the war, Rutledge was elected South Carolina’s governor, and his former home at 117 Broad St. is now a bed-and-breakfast, aptly called the Governor’s House. It stands across the street from his brother John’s home, which is also now an inn. (Note: John Rutledge was a signer of the U.S. Constitution.) The Rutledge family’s plantation was in Mount Pleasant on land that is now part of the Phillips Community and Laurel Hill County Park. Rutledge is buried in downtown Charleston at St. Philip’s churchyard. Middleton Place, a former rice plantation along the banks of the Ashley River, is the birthplace of another signer, Arthur Middleton. The Middleton family was among the wealthiest families in colonial America. Middleton and his father were both very involved in political affairs and attended meetings in Philadelphia to debate the issue of whether the colonies should make the break with England. Middleton was at the Second Continental Congress when the vote was taken, and he subsequently signed the Declaration, along with 55 other representatives from the 13 original colonies. The next time you are in a state government building, look at 117 Broad St. Photo by Mary Coy. Middleton Place. Photo by Mary Coy.