Dr. Charles Drayton (1743-1820)
of Drayton Hall; Lieutenant-Governor of South Carolina
He was born in Charleston, S.C., and was educated with his elder brother at Westminster School and Balliol College, Oxford, before taking a degree in medicine at the University of Edinburgh. He returned to South Carolina and like all his family took up with the Patriot cause during the Revolutionary War. After the death of his elder brother he purchased Drayton Hall from their stepmother and the following year he was elected Lieutenant-Governor of South Carolina. In 1774, he married Hester Middleton, daughter of the distinguished Henry Middleton, 2nd President of the Continental Congress, who grew up at the neighboring plantation, Middleton Place. Their first three children died young (Henry, Charles and Caroline) and four reached adulthood.
