James E. Oglethorpe – Father of Georgia

By Joseph Harris Chappell, 1905

James Edward Oglethorpe, Founder of Georgia

James Edward Oglethorpe, Founder of Georgia

James Edward Oglethorpe was a British general, Parliament member, philanthropist, and founder of the Georgia Colony.

James Oglethorpe was born in Westminster, England, on June 1, 1696. While he was yet a babe in the cradle, it might have been expected that he would become a great man, for he came from a family of great people. Six hundred years before he was born, one of his ancestors, Sheriff Oglethorpe, was a high officer in the English army and was killed in the famous Battle of Hastings while bravely fighting for his country against the invader, William the Conqueror. This brave soldier had many distinguished descendants, the greatest of whom was James Oglethorpe.

James’s father, Sir Theophilus Oglethorpe, was also a noted officer in the English army. He fought with great valor in many battles and rose to the high rank of Major-General. When he was 40 years old, he retired from the army and settled in an elegant home in the little town of Godalming, about 30 miles from London.

He lived in great affluence with his family, and his children had the best educational advantages that could be obtained in Europe in that day. James’s mother was a Scotch-Irish lady of a fine family and of a good education. She was counted as one of the cleverest and shrewdest English women of her day. She was one of the Ladies of the Court to “Good Queen Anne” and was a leader in society and a power in politics. She was a woman of strong will and, no doubt, had a great influence in forming the character of her distinguished son.

James grew to be a tall, lithe, handsome youth, quiet-mannered, good-natured, and high-spirited. Oglethorpe was educated at a military school, and before he was 20 years old, he joined the English army. He served with the rank of ensign under the great Duke of Marlborough. After the war was over, he withdrew from the army and attended college for a year or two, but he was a born soldier and did not like the “weak, piping times of peace.” As England had no wars to fight, he joined the Austrian army, which then engaged in a war with the Turks. The leader of the Austrian army was Prince Eugene of Savoy, the most brilliant soldier of his day. He was a small man but a great general, “a bright little soul with a flash in him as of heaven’s own lightning,” as Carlyle, the famous English writer, said of him. Prince Eugene took a very decided liking to young Oglethorpe and made him his aide-de-camp, with the rank of Captain. By the side of this “bright little soul with a flash in him as of heaven’s own lightning,” Oglethorpe thoroughly learned the soldier’s trade and fought with dashing valor in many desperate battles. These were his romantic days, and he always loved to talk about them. When he was an old man, he would charm brilliant company with his vivid descriptions of the battles he had fought by the side of Prince Eugene.

When the Turkish war was over, Oglethorpe returned to England and settled down to ways of peace. His father and elder brothers died, and he inherited the family estates. He was now a very rich man but lived a simple and sober life. He was elected to Parliament and served as a member for many years. While he was in Parliament, an event occurred that turned his attention toward America and caused him to become the founder of Georgia.

Debtors' Prison.

Debtors’ Prison.

At that time, England had a law that a person in debt could be imprisoned by his creditors and kept there until his debts were somehow paid. Many poor, unfortunate people, innocent of any crime, languished in these debtors’ prisons for years. This law affected a good friend of Oglethorpe’s, a scholar and artist named Robert Castell. Castell had written a fine book on architecture, which he illustrated with splendid pictures drawn by his own hand. He was so much taken up with writing the book that he neglected his business affairs, and when the book was published instead of making money for him it brought him heavily in debt. As a result, he was condemned to be cast into the debtors’ prison.

In the prison to which he was assigned, smallpox was raging, and he had never had the disease. He begged the prison keeper, a heartless wretch by the name of Bambridge, to let him lie in the common jail until the prison should be freed of smallpox or until his friends could arrange to pay his debts for him, which he was sure would be done in the course of a few months. Bambridge agreed to do so if Castell would pay him a certain sum of money as a bribe in cash. Still, Castell didn’t have the money, so he was thrown into the smallpox-infested prison, where he soon contracted the disease. After a few days’ suffering, he died an awful death, leaving his wife and small children poverty-stricken and helpless.

When Oglethorpe heard of this outrage, his blood boiled with indignation. He, at once, introduced a bill in Parliament to have a committee appointed to examine the prisons of England and bring about a reform in their management. The bill was passed, and Oglethorpe was made Chairman of the Committee. With the other members, he spent several months visiting the prisons. He found in them many practices of shocking cruelty, all of which were immediately abolished.

If Oglethorpe had done nothing more than bring about this reform, he would deserve the lasting gratitude of humanity, but he did not stop at this. While visiting the prisons, his sympathies were deeply aroused for the poor debtors whom he found languishing behind iron bars, though innocent of any crime. He determined to try to do something to help them out of their sad condition. By his earnest appeals, he got Parliament to pass a law by which they might be set free, provided they would agree to go to America and establish a new colony for England on a broad strip of unsettled country already claimed by her, south of the Savannah River. It lay next to Florida, which then belonged to Spain. At that time, the Spaniards were one of the world’s most powerful and warlike nations and were hostile to the English, although not openly at war with them.

Fortunately for Oglethorpe’s enterprise, King George II of England was anxious to plant colonies in his unoccupied possessions south of the Savannah River to protect South Carolina against the bold Spaniards of Florida. He gladly granted to Oglethorpe “for the use of debtors and other poor persons” all the country between the Savannah and the Altamaha Rivers and as far westward as they might choose to go. This strip of country was named Georgia in honor of King George. A Board of Trustees, consisting of 36 members, among whom were some of the King’s most distinguished men, were appointed to be in charge of planting, establishing, and governing the new colony. They were to serve without pay or compensation of any sort. Lord Perceval was board president, and Oglethorpe was one of its members. The Trustees set about raising money to pay the cost of establishing the colony, and for the poor people who were to go, but could not pay any part of their own expenses. Parliament made quite a liberal appropriation for the purpose, and public donations raised a larger amount. Altogether, the Trustees soon had $150,000 in hand, which was sufficient to establish a small colony.

At one of the Trustees’ meetings, it was suggested that a member of the Board, a man of education and ability, should go over to America with the first colonists as their Governor and live in Georgia with them until they were well and thoroughly established. Oglethorpe nobly volunteered to go, and the Trustees were delighted. In undertaking this trying service, Oglethorpe would have to give up his luxurious home, the pleasures of refined society, and the splendid public career that was fast opening to him in England and would have to endure untold hardships, privations, and dangers.

At that time, he was 43 years old and was yet unmarried. When it was known that the great and good Oglethorpe himself would accompany the expedition, hundreds and hundreds of poor people, debtors, and others were anxious to go, but only a few could be taken. Out of the hundreds of applicants, the Trustees carefully selected 40 strong, healthy men with good morals and small families. Altogether, the party’s men, women, and children consisted of 120 souls.

The good ship, Anne, a sailing vessel of two hundred tons burden, was chartered to take the emigrants across the ocean to America. As she lay moored to the wharf at Gravesend, she held stored provisions, tools, and implements for the journey and for getting the colony well established in Georgia. Everything was then ready for the voyage.

The landing of James Oglethorpe in Georgia

The landing of James Oglethorpe in Georgia

On November 16, 1732, Oglethorpe and his colonists left England and arrived in Charleston, South Carolina on January 13, 1733. There, he obtained the advice and assistance of Governor Robert Johnson. Before moving the emigrants into Georgia, Oglethorpe, with help from the South Carolina colonists, searched for the best place for a colony. After locating a site on a high bluff near the Savannah River, he returned to South Carolina and gathered the immigrants. On the afternoon of February 12th, 1733, they arrived and would soon build the city of Savannah, Georgia.

On and off, James Oglethorpe would remain in Georgia from 1733 to 1743. In 1736, he was given the rank of colonel and a British regiment to defend the colony from Spain. Oglethorpe lived the last six years of his stay in Georgia on St. Simons Island, where he built Fort Frederica. Here, in 1742, his forces turned back a Spanish invasion in what came to be known as the Battle of Bloody Marsh, for which Oglethorpe was promoted to brigadier general in the British Army.

Oglethorpe returned to England in 1743 and married a woman named Elizabeth Wright in September 1744. He lived his final four decades divided between London and his wife’s inherited estate in Cranham. James Oglethorpe died at age 88 on June 30, 1785.

 

By Joseph Harris Chappell, 1905. Compiled and edited by Kathy Alexander/Legends of America, updated March 2024.

Also See:

The Founding of Savannah

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Early American People Photo Gallery

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