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 who had excommunicated him, and who suffered a few days later. In July Middleton went to London and urged the king to restore episcopacy in Scotland. He is said to have received no instructions to change the government of the church, but to have been authorised to sound the Scots on the subject, and he now assured the king that episcopacy was ‘desired by the greater and honester part of the nation.’ Lauderdale was of a different mind, and this was the beginning of a deadly feud between them, which ended in Middleton's overthrow.

Middleton was again commissioner to the parliament which met in May 1662, and in July of that year was made an extraordinary lord of session. In the end of September following he and the privy council met at Glasgow; and when most of them, it is said, were under the influence of drink, passed the act by which the clergy who refused to conform to episcopacy were deprived of their benefices. In 1663 he was ordered up to London to meet the accusations of Lauderdale, who charged him with many offences, such as withholding letters from the king on public affairs, consenting to measures without his authority, and taking bribes from presbyterians to exempt them from fines. He was deprived of all his offices, and then retired to the house of an old Scottish companion in arms near Guildford in Surrey. The king some years afterwards made him governor of Tangier, where he died in June 1674 (Sloane MS. 3512, f. 79) from the effects of a fall which he met with in a fit of intoxication.

Middleton was one of the most successful of the Scottish soldiers of fortune, and was eminent alike for force of character, personal courage, and ability as a commander. Clarendon says he was ‘a man of great honour and courage, and much the best officer they (the Scots) had.’ Sir George Mackenzie describes him as of ‘heroic aspect, courage, and generosity, manly, eloquent, and as more pitied in his fall than envied in his prosperity.’ Baillie, soon after his return to Scotland as royal commissioner, says that ‘his wisdom, sobriety, and moderation have been such as make him better beloved, and reputed as fit for that great charge as any other we could have gotten;’ but his character, like that of his rival Lauderdale, rapidly deteriorated after that time, and there is every reason to believe that this was due to habitual intemperance.

He married, first, Grizel, daughter of Sir James Durham of Pitkerrow, Forfarshire, and had a son, Charles, second and last earl [q. v.], and two daughters, Lady Grisel who married the ninth earl of Morton, and Lady Helen who married the first earl of Strathmore; secondly, Lady Martha Carey, daughter of the second earl of Monmouth, by whom he had a son John, who died in early life. 

MIDDLETON, JOHN (1827–1856), landscape painter, born at Norwich in 1827, was from early days a student in the Norwich school of landscape painters, working under John Crome [q. v.] and Joseph Stannard [q. v.] He practised almost entirely at Norwich, but was an exhibitor at the Royal Academy and the British Institution in London from 1847 till his death. His landscapes were noted for their effective rendering of the seasons of the year, especially the early spring. Middleton was unfortunately a victim to consumption, of which he died on 11 Nov. 1856, at Surrey Street, Norwich, in his thirtieth year. 

MIDDLETON, JOSHUA (1647–1721), quaker, born in 1647, at Darlington, was one of the Silksworth (Durham) Middletons, a younger branch of the Middletons of Belsay Castle, Northumberland. His fifth direct ancestor, Gilbert Middleton, was mayor of Newcastle in 1530. His father, John Middleton (so called in the marriage register, but Gurney in his pedigree has Joshua), was a strict presbyterian, and brought him up with much care. He, however, early joined the quakers, who had attracted at that time many families of importance in the northern counties. Soon after joining the society, Middleton became a minister, and travelled in many parts of England and Scotland, entertaining also at his house Thomas Story [q. v.] and many other travelling friends. He lived first at Raby, near Staindrop, Durham, and afterwards at Newcastle, where he died 27 Jan. 1720–1.

The ‘Testimony’ of his quarterly meeting speaks of his good example and ‘care of the churches.’ He was of a peaceable spirit, useful in healing differences.

Middleton married Dorothy, daughter of Timothy and Katherine Draper of Newcastle; she died 27 June 1688. He married secondly, on 9 Sept. 1697, Jane Molleson of London, daughter of Gilbert Molleson of Aberdeen, and sister of Christian Barclay, wife of the apologist. 