Henry Bentivoglio Middleton (1923-2002)

He was a former diamond prospector and rancher. Although a direct descendant of the Middletons of Middleton Place near Charleston, he grew up in Italy. He fought against the Americans in World War II while serving with the Italian Navy before being captured and held as a prisoner of war for 27-months. When he returned home, he found his family nearly bankrupt and moved to Brazil and then Venezuela where he became a successful diamond prospector. He came to Charleston for the first time in 1957 both to visit his ancestral home and to marry his wife, Payne Whitney Payson, of New York. Three years later (1960) he became a U.S. citizen. He was a trustee of the Middleton Place Foundation, and a benefactor of the Middleton Place Plantation and the Spoleto Festival. He and his wife were the parents of two daughters.