Answer: Pierce Butler.

The son of Sir Richard Butler, Pierce Butler was born in Ireland in 1744.  He served in the British military, and was assigned to serve in Boston in 1768.  He married Mary Middleton, of South Carolina, and he soon relocated to the Charleston area to become a planter there.  He owned plantations in South Carolina and Georgia, but lost much of his land during the Revolution.  In the 1780s, he served in the South Carolina assembly, as adjutant general in the South Carolina militia, and as a delegate to both the Continental Congress and Constitutional Convention.  He served in the Senate from 1789 to 1796, and again in 1803 to 1804.  Butler later moved to Philadelphia, where his daughter lived with her husband.  He died in Philadelphia in 1822, and was buried at Christ Church.  

HSP's Wister and Butler families papers (#1962) contains a series of materials from Major Piece Butler comprised of correspondence, estate papers, receipt books, and newspapers. In another collection, the Pierce Butler letterbooks (Am .0368), researchers will find detailed accounts of the business of running a plantation, including descriptions of crops, discussions of quality and prices, orders for supplies, and notes about the enslaved people who worked on the plantation.

An expanded version of this article appeared in the Currents section of the Sunday Philadelphia Inquirer.