James Edward Oglethorpe

Portrait of James Edward Oglethorpe.

Early Life

James Edward Oglethorpe was born on December 22, 1696 in Godalming, Surrey, England. At age 10, he began his military career by enrolling in Queen Anne’s 1^st Regiment of Foot Guards. After a formal education at Eton College, he entered Corpus Christi College, Oxford in 1714. He left for Paris after a year to enroll in a military academy and at the outbreak of the Austro-Turkish War (1716-1718) in Europe, he joined the Imperial Austrian army under Prince Eugene of Savoy. Oglethorpe became aide-de-camp, participating in a handful of battles and sieges, all of which were victories for Prince Eugene’s army.

Upon his return to England he was elected Member of Parliament for his family seat, Haslemere, in 1722 at age 25. He would hold this seat through seven Parliaments for thirty-two years until his defeat in 1754. While in Parliament, Oglethorpe became a leading humanitarian. In his first five years in the House of Commons he was appointed to forty-two Parliamentary committees dealing with a wide variety of subjects, including a 1724 "committee to consider a Bill for the relief of insolvent debtors." He also became interested in the low rates of pay for the men of the Royal Navy, and the terrible grievance of impressment. Oglethorpe’s first publication “The Sailor's Advocate” (1728), was an indictment of the conditions of the period.

 

The "Worthy Poor"

In 1728, Oglethorpe was head of yet another Parliamentary committee. It was established to investigate the major debtors’ prisons of London. Oglethorpe and his fellow parliamentarians reviewed the conditions of the prisons, the treatment of the prisoners, how the wardens were managing the prison, and produced reports on their findings. This was one of the first great ‘social’ inquiries by the House of Commons. Oglethorpe was motivated to investigate for several reasons, including the death of his friend Robert Castell, who died in debtors’ prison.

Oglethorpe’s efforts were long remembered for their pioneering and humanitarian concerns for the plight of thousands of respectable people who found themselves imprisoned for nothing more than being unable to pay off debts to their creditors. The committee’s exposure both of the horrors of the prison underworld and the ill-treatment of debtors by the judicial system won widespread public acclaim.

 

Georgia Colony

The philanthropic and humanitarian nature of Oglethorpe inspired him to uproot these efforts and ideals into a new venture and the Trustees for Establishing the Colony of Georgia in America was formed to create a utopian colony, the product of a social experiment. The initial purpose of the colony was to have a military buffer for the southern British colonies against the Spanish in Florida. The other purpose of the colony was to be a place for what the Trustees envisioned as an opportunity for the “worthy poor” to have a second chance at life; a fresh start. In 1732, King George II signed the charter to establish the Georgia colony. Early on, Oglethorpe personally funded this venture by purchasing the needed supplies and other necessary items to get the colony started. There were also other philanthropists who donated to the cause, helping to establish the colony. In February 1733, Oglethorpe and the first group of colonists arrived at the future site of Savannah.

 

Military Leader

Only a few years after Savannah was established, Oglethorpe’s focus shifted to the military defense of the colony. The ownership of the land that Georgia was established in was debated, claimed by both Britain and Spain. Oglethorpe needed a strong military presence to assert the British claim.

Frederica was established in 1736 to provide this military support and defense. It was also established during a time when tensions between the British and Spanish were at an all-time high. Once construction of the fort began in early 1736, Oglethorpe went back to England to speak to Parliament in hopes of acquiring a regiment of 700 men and the rank of a colonel. He was also commissioned as commander in chief of all His Majesty’s forces of South Carolina and Georgia. In 1738, he returned back to Frederica with the 42^nd Regiment of Foot. Less than a year later, Britain would officially declare war on Spain after a series of failed negotiations. This was primarily over trade disputes in the West Indies and the territorial dispute over Georgia. Oglethorpe was preparing for this, now setting his sights on St. Augustine and the Castillo de San Marcos. He launched a 38 day siege of the Spanish town in the summer of 1740; the first military engagement he commanded. It was also an unsuccessful attempt for the British, leaving St. Augustine in defeat. However, two years later, he would successfully repel a Spanish Invasion of Georgia, formally securing the Georgia colony for Britain and the future United States.

 

Later Life

After ten years in Georgia, on July 23, 1743, James Oglethorpe boarded a ship for London, never to return again. His trip was prompted by two reasons: Inadequate funding from the Trustees and Parliament over the years had caused him to borrow heavily to pay the colony’s unfunded expenses. He had used Westbrook, his family home in Godalming, as security for the loans. A second reason for returning was to answer charges that an officer in his regiment had leveled against him as well as various charges laid against him by disaffected colonists.

All charges were eventually dropped and Oglethorpe was also reimbursed over 60,000 from Parliament. He had married Elizabeth Wright in 1744 and they would be married until Oglethorpe’s death in 1785. Oglethorpe still had a very active military life up until the 1750’s. He lost his seat in parliament in 1754 and started to shift his interests into the arts. He would eventually reach the rank of general and be the senior officer for the entire British army in the 1760’s and 1770’s. During the Revolutionary War, he privately attempted to convince Parliament to negotiate a truce. Three weeks before he died, he spoke with John Adams, while in London, to express his “great esteem and regard for America”, the new country in whose creation he had played an important role. He died on June 30, 1785 and is buried at All Saints Church, Cranham, London.