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General James Oglethorpe

James Oglethorpe (December 22 1696 – June 30, 1785) was a British general, a philanthropist, and was the founder of the colony of Georgia. He was born in London, the son of Sir Theophilus Oglethorpe (1650-1702) of Westbrook Place, Godalming in the county of Surrey. A social reformer in England, he hoped to resettle England’s poor, especially those in debtor’s prison, in the New World.

He entered Corpus Christi College, in 1714, but in the same year joined the army of Prince Eugene of Savoy. Through the recommendation of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, he became aide-de-camp to the prince, and he served with distinction in the campaign against the Turks, 1716-17, more especially at the siege and capture of Belgrade. After his return to England, he was elected as Member of Parliament for Haslemere in 1722. He campaigned for the improvement of the circumstances of poor debtors in London prisons. For the purpose of providing a refuge for persons who had become insolvent and for oppressed Protestants on the continent, he proposed the settlement of a colony in America between Carolina and Florida. He laid the groundwork for the colonisation of the state, proposing that it be colonised with debtors released from the abominable conditions of England's debtor's prisons.

Oglethorpe sailed for Charleston, South Carolina on the ship Ann, arriving in 1732, and settled near the present site of Savannah, Georgia. He negotiated with the Creek tribe for land and established a series of defensive forts. He then returned to England and arranged to have slavery banned in Georgia. Oglethorpe and his fellow trustees were granted a Royal Charter for the Province of Georgia between the Savannah and Altamaha rivers on June 9, 1732.^[1]

James Oglethorpe, from a painting at the Georgia State Capitol.

Georgia was a key contested area, lying in between the two colonies. It was Oglethorpe's idea that British debtors should be released from prison and sent to Georgia. This would theoretically rid England of its so-called undesirable elements, while providing him with a base from which to attack Florida. Ultimately, few debtors ended up in Georgia. Instead, many of Georgia's new settlers consisted of poor English tradesmen and artisans and religious refugees from Switzerland and Germany. On February 21, 1734 Oglethorpe established the first Masonic Lodge within the British Colony of Georgia. Now known as Solomon's Lodge No. 1, F. & A. M. it is the "Oldest Continuously Operating English Constituted Lodge of Freemasons in the Western Hemisphere." For a period in 1736 Oglethorpe's secretary was Charles Wesley, later famous as a founder of Methodism.

Owing to the colony's primary role as a military buffer between English and Spanish-held territories, the original model for the colonisation of Georgia excluded the use of slave labour, fearing that slaves could internally weaken the colony and perhaps defect to the Spanish. The banning of slavery inadvertently resulted in a deficit in the work force that limited Georgia's early economic growth. Many settlers began to oppose Oglethorpe and regarded him as "[their] perpetual dictator." Many new settlers soon set their eyes on South Carolina as a less restrictive and, they hoped, a more profitable place to settle. In 1750, after a series of political and military defeats, Oglethorpe lost his will to oppose slavery and the ban was lifted.

Statue of James Oglethorpe at the Augusta Common

In 1739, during the War of Jenkins' Ear, fought between English Georgia and Spanish Florida as part of a larger conflict, the War of Austrian Succession, Oglethorpe was responsible for a number of successful raids on Spanish forts, as well as the unsuccessful siege of St. Augustine. Among his most valuable Indian allies in this siege was Ahaya (Cowkeeper), leader of the Alachua band of the Seminole tribe.

In 1745, Oglethorpe was promoted to the rank of major-general. His conduct in connection with the Jacobite Rising of that year resulted in his court-martial, but he was acquitted. In 1765, he was raised to the rank of general. He died at Cranham Hall, Cranham, England.

• Oglethorpe killed a man after returning from Oxford. He was put in prison for five months.^[2]

• Fort Frederica National Monument
• Battle of Bloody Marsh

1. ^ http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/states/ga01.htm
2. ^ http://ourgeorgiahistory.com/people/oglethorpe.html

• The New Georgia Encyclopedia