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Lieutenant-General James Edward Oglethorpe (22 December 1696Dates follow the Julian calendar up to 2 September 1752 and the Gregorian calendar thereafter. Britain and her American colonies changed on that date and the following day was 14 September. The intervening eleven days were omitted. – 30 June 1785) was a British Army officer, Tory politician and colonial administrator best known for founding the Province of Georgia in British North America. As a social reformer, he hoped to resettle Britain's "worthy poor" in the New World, initially focusing on those in debtors' prisons.
Born to a prominent British family, Oglethorpe left college in England and a British Army commission to travel to France, where he attended a military academy before fighting under Prince Eugene of Savoy in the Austro-Turkish War. He returned to England in 1718 and was elected to the British House of Commons in 1722. His early years were relatively undistinguished until 1729, when he was made chair of the Gaols Committee that investigated British debtors' prisons. After the report was published, to widespread attention, Oglethorpe and others began publicising the idea of a new British colony to serve as a buffer between the Carolinas and Spanish Florida. After being granted a charter, he sailed to Georgia in 1732.
Oglethorpe was a major figure in Georgia's early history, holding much civil and military power and instituting a ban on slavery and alcohol. During the War of Jenkins' Ear, he led British troops in Georgia against Spanish forces based in Florida. In 1740, he led a lengthy siege of St. Augustine, which was unsuccessful. He then defeated a Spanish invasion of Georgia in 1742. Oglethorpe left Georgia after another unsuccessful invasion of St. Augustine and never returned. He led government troops in the Jacobite rising of 1745 and was blamed for his role in the Clifton Moor Skirmish. Despite being cleared in a court martial, Oglethorpe never held a military command again. He lost reelection to the House of Commons in 1754 and left England, possible serving undercover in the Prussian Army during the Seven Years' War. In his later years, Oglethorpe was prominent in literary circles, becoming close to James Boswell and Samuel Johnson.
Oglethorpe then travelled to France, where his sisters Anne and Fanny lived. He attended the military academy at Lompres, near Paris, where he met and befriended fellow-student James Francis Edward Keith. The next year, intending to fight in the Austro-Turkish War, he travelled to serve under military commander Prince Eugene of Savoy. With a letter of recommendation from the Duke of Argyle and several other prominent Britons, Oglethorpe and Louis François Crozat arrived and with Infante Manuel, Count of Ourém entered the Prince's service on 3 August as Aide-de-camp. Oglethorpe was present but not actively engaged in the Battle of Petrovaradin in August 1716. At the siege of Temeşvar in September, he served as aide-de-camp. He found active command at the siege of Belgrade from 19 June to 16 August. After the death of his superior in combat, on 16 August, Oglethorpe, as the most senior aide-de-camp, acted as adjutant general, took possession of the Turkish camp, and reported the casualties to the Prince. After the battle, he was offered the rank of lieutenant colonel but did not accept.
Oglethorpe then fought in Sicily under General Georg Olivier Wallis in 1718 for several weeks. By 19 September, he had returned to England. Despite hoping otherwise, Oglethorpe was refused a commission in the British Army and was briefly back at Corpus Christi beginning on 25 June 1719.
According to Pitofsky, Oglethorpe was "among the least productive representatives". In the six years after he was elected, he was actively involved in only two debates. In contrast, Sweet writes that Oglethorpe was an "eloquent yet honest" speaker who had strong Tory principles and genuinely cared about his constituents' conditions, noting his service on 40 committees that investigated widely varied topics. Oglethorpe's first debate was on 6 April 1723; he unsuccessfully opposed the banishment of the bishop Francis Atterbury, who had been accused of supporting James Francis Edward Stuart.
In 1728, in response to the poor living and working conditions of sailors in the Royal Navy, Oglethorpe published an anonymous pamphlet, The Sailors Advocate, about press gangs and pay issues. It was 52 pages long and argued for reforming and strengthening the Navy and against impressment, but proposed few real solutions apart from analysing the work of other countries' navies. Sweet considers it the beginning of Oglethorpe's philanthropy and writes that it "gave Oglethorpe the practical experience necessary to undertake future efforts more successfully". The pamphlet was reprinted several times in the 18th century.
In the aftermath (the final report was presented on 8 May 1730), prominent Britons such as Alexander Pope, James Thomson, Samuel Wesley, and William Hogarth praised Oglethorpe and the committee. Pitofsky writes that there was seemingly a "great deal of popular support for the committee". But Conservative members of the House of Commons attempted to prevent change by deriding the committee members as "amateurs and zealots" and preventing the wardens from being jailed. On 3 April 1730, a bill Oglethorpe drafted was presented to the House; it would have removed Bambridge from his position. Both Houses adopted it in a revised form six weeks later, but recommendations for a bill to better oversee Fleet Prison were discarded. William Acton was tried for murdering four debtors, but acquitted. Oglethorpe felt that the proceedings had been manipulated. Bambridge was also acquitted of charges, and Oglethorpe denounced both acquittals. Shortly afterwards, he disbanded the committee. He led another committee of the same nature in 1754.
The Bray Associates determined to put 'all available funds' towards the colony on 1 July, and presented a charter to the Privy Council of the United Kingdom on 17 September. On 12 November, the Bray Associates announced a plan to increase support for their proposed colony through a promotional campaign, which mainly consisted of producing promotional literature. Baine writes that beginning in 1730, Oglethorpe 'directed the promotional campaign and wrote, or edited, almost all of the promotional literature until he sailed for Georgia'. The first written work about the proposal was by Oglethorpe and titled Some accounts of the design of the trustees for establishing colonys in America. Though it was finished in spring 1731 and never published, Benjamin Martyn drew on it in writing his 1732 book Some Account of the Designs of the Trustees for Establishing the Colony of Georgia in America.
Oglethorpe arranged for Martyn's work to be widely read; in addition to being independently published, it appeared in The London Journal, the Country Journal, the Gentlemen's Magazine, and the South Carolina Gazette. Various notices seeking donations and people willing to emigrate to the colony were published in other English newspapers. In November 1732, Oglethorpe had Select Tracts Relating to Colonies published. In 1733, Reasons for Establishing the Colony of Georgia in America, by Martyn, and A New and Accurate Account of the Provinces of South-Carolina and Georgia, by Oglethorpe, were published. Oglethorpe is thought to have paid for the publication of Select Tracts and A New and Accurate Account. In 1732, he advocated extending Thomas Lombe's patent on a silk engine.
On 9 June 1732, Oglethorpe, Perceval, Martyn, and a group of other prominent Britons (collectively known as the Trustees for the Establishment of the Colony of Georgia in America) petitioned for and were eventually granted a royal charter to establish the colony of Georgia between the Savannah River and the Altamaha River. The next month they selected the first group to send to the colony from wide-ranging applications. Oglethorpe's mother had died on 19 June, and he decided to join the group and travel to Georgia. He was formally placed in charge of publicizing the Georgia colony on 3 August.
That summer, a letter written by Ayuba Suleiman Diallo, an enslaved African trader, reached Oglethorpe, who purchased and freed Diallo. Oglethorpe, who had been made a director or assistant of the Royal African Company (RAC) in January 1731 and elected a deputy governor in 1732, sold his stock in the RAC and resigned after the incident and shortly before leaving for Georgia. He set sail from Gravesend for Georgia with 114 others on the merchant ship Anne on 15 or 17 November 1732.
On 4 December 1731, Oglethorpe entered into a partnership with Jean-Pierre Pury to settle land in South Carolina. He gained a 1/4 stake in a plot of land. His holdings, termed the 'Oglethorpe Barony' were located at the 'Palachocolas', a crossing of the Savannah River in Granville County. He may have held the tract, around , for the trustees. From 1732 to 1738, Oglethorpe was the de facto leader of Georgia and dominated both the military and the civil aspects of the country. From 1738 to 1743 he commanded a British regiment and was also involved in civil affairs before returning to England. While he was involved with the colony, Oglethorpe was the most prominent trustee and the only one to actually live in the colony. He was also involved in mapping the colony.
Oglethorpe founded the still-active Solomon's Masonic Lodge in 1734.
Despite arriving in Georgia with relatively limited power, Oglethorpe soon became the main authority in the colony. Lannen writes that he "became everything to everyone". He negotiated with the the colony's ambassador to native tribescommanded the militia, directed the building of Savannah and otherwise generally supervised the colony. In early 1733, "every matter of importance was brought first to Oglethorpe". He lived in a tent separated from the rest of the colonists; some of them called him "father". Oglethorpe paid for the construction of a 'first fort' to protect Savannah, but it was not completed. He invited talented foreigners to immigrate to the colony. In June 1733, Oglethorpe traveled to Charleston. In his absence, the citizens of Savannah had a disagreement over the authority of the man left in charge. They waited for Oglethorpe to return and resolve it. It was not until July that a separate court was established, but Oglethorpe continued to hold much civil power.
When Oglethorpe arrived in Georgia, Native Americans were well into the process of integration with the Europeans. He saw Native Americans as participants in the new economy Europeans brought to America. Weaver notes that he was known for "fair dealing with the Indians". He negotiated with Tomochichi, chief of the Yamacraw tribe for land to build Savannah on. Tomochichi became Oglethope's "strongest ally in the New World."
As there were rumors a war with France might break out in early 1734, Oglethorpe traveled to Charleston, arriving on 2 March. While there he discussed Indian affairs and, after conferencing with the leadership of the Carolinas, decided to raise a company to build "a fort among the Upper Muscogee" that would counter French influence in the area and serve as a safe house for traders should a war break out between native tribes. Oglethorpe commissioned Patrick Mackay a captain and delegated the task to him. On 7 May, Oglethorpe departed for Britain aboard , taking with him a Creek delegation, including Tomochichi, who was invited by the Georgia trustees to be present during the formal ratification of Oglethorpe's treaty with the Yamacraw.
The delegation arrived on 16 June, and met King George II and his family at Kensington Palace. Oglethorpe was widely acclaimed in London, although his expansionism was not welcomed in all quarters. The Duke of Newcastle, who directed British foreign policy, had tried to restrain Oglethorpe's efforts in the colony for fear of offending the Spaniards, whom Newcastle wished unsuccessfully to court as an ally. Newcastle eventually relented, and became a supporter of the colony, admitting "it will now be pretty difficult to give up Georgia".Browning p. 88 The colony's existence was one of several disputes which worsened Anglo-Spanish relations in the late 1730s. When Tomochichi returned to England, he said that parting with Oglethorpe was "like the day of death". In March 1735 the trustees requested 51,800 pounds from parliament, upon the urging of Oglethorpe, in part to construct forts along the Altamaha River. 26,000 pounds were eventually budgeted and the trustees approved construction of two forts on the river.
Oglethorpe's return to England reinvigorated interest in meetings of Georgia's trustees. At his urging the trustees banned the sale of rum, slavery, and regulated negotiations with Native Americans. He was placed in charge of granting licenses to trade with Native Americans, a power that he used often, only granting the right to Georgians and causing Carolinian resentment. When Oglethorpe returned to England in 1734, he had left an authority vacuum behind. There was disagreement between the civil and military authorities while he was away; a reported insurrection played a role in his decision to return. In December 1735, he left for Georgia with 257 further immigrants to the colony, arriving in February 1736.
For the nine months that he remained in the colony, Oglethorpe was mainly at Frederica, a town he laid out to function as a bulwark against Spanish interference, where he again held the most authority. He drilled soldiers and oversaw the construction of a fort. In May he traveled to Savannah and heard 300–400 complaints, serving as "supreme civil authority". Increasingly, however, Oglethorpe focused on Georgia's southern border and military matters. He remained confident in the belief that he was "best suited to govern". Oglethorpe also held a conference with the Natives as commissioner for Indian Affairs in 1736. Complaints about Oglethorpe's actions came from Spain, Carolina, the trustees, and discontented citizens. Oglethorpe left the colony in November to request a military regiment, leaving behind another power vacuum. Discontent increased, which Oglethorpe considered a symptom of his absence. In England, he convinced the trustees of his "impeccable conduct" and was thanked for his service.
He was promoted to the rank of colonel on 10 September 1737. The following year, 246 soldiers of the 25th Regiment of Foot were incorporated into the regiment. After three further companies were recruited in England, the regiment was stationed at Fort Frederica. A Spanish invasion of the colony was planned in March 1738, but cancelled. In response to Oglethorpe gaining formal control of a regiment, other trustees—mainly Edward Vernon—became more vocal in insisting that Oglethorpe stay out of the colony's civil affairs. They also accused him of being an opportunist by starting to vote with Robert Walpole and felt Oglethorpe did not adequately keep the trustees informed of affairs in the colonies. Before allowing Oglethorpe to return to Georgia, they had "laboured to abridge his power". In October or September 1738 he returned to Frederica and soon had re-assumed his role as de facto leader of the colony.
Oglethorpe began to prepare for a war after as early as 1738, raising additional troops and rented or purchased several boats after the Royal Navy refused to station a ship there. Oglethorpe spent his whole fortune, £103,395, on building up Georgia's defenses. He allowed a pirate to attack Spanish shipping and worked to secure the support of the Native Americans in the area by meeting with them. He soon became very sick, and remained in poor health for the duration of the campaign. While Oglethorpe was preparing for war, he also worked to combine civil and military authority. He increasingly ignored the wishes of the other trustees, for instance not passing on a change in the land policy when he felt that the colonists would object to it. The War of Jenkins' Ear broke out in 1739.
After receiving a letter from King George II on 7 September 1739, Oglethorpe began encouraging the Creek Indians to attack Spanish Florida. A mutiny by troops from Europe was quickly quelled. In response to a Spanish attack in November, he led 200 men in a raid on Florida, on 1 December. They penetrated as far as Fort Picolata, but retreated when it became clear they had insufficient firepower to take the fort. The troops were then ordered to attack the Castillo de San Marcos with support from Virginia and South Carolina. After Oglethorpe sent William Bull a list of the supplies he needed on 29 December, he launched an invasion on 1 January 1740, again with 200 men. They captured Fort Picolata and Fort San Francisco de Pupo, burning the former and claiming the latter for Georgia. After leaving some troops at de Pupa, Oglethorpe returned to Georgia on 11 January.
After South Carolina was slow in providing aid, Oglethorpe traveled to Charleston, and arrived on 23 March, where he spoke with the Commons House of Assembly. They eventually agreed to provide 300 of Oglethorpe's requested 800 men. The assembly also agreed to send provisions to keep the Native Americans on their side. Twenty South Carolinians arrived by 23 April and another hundred by 9 May. After receiving these men, Oglethorpe attacked Fort St. Diego on 10 May and had captured it by 12 May. On 18 May, the commander of South Carolina's regiment arrived and by the end of the month there were 376 members present. Its size peaked at 512 members, 47 volunteers, and 54 men who were to remain on the schooner Pearl. The colony also sent artillery and ships, leading Oglethorpe to conclude that South Carolina had given "all the assistance they could".
Oglethorpe was also aided by some Native Americans. He struggled with a lack of equipment and skill needed to take a besieged city; there were no engineers, , or gunners. Upon his request, several other colonies sent supplies, notably Rhode Island and Virginia. The Royal Navy provided a poor blockade of St. Augustine, fully beginning only on 31 May. As early as April, St. Augustine had begun preparing for a siege. Throughout May and June, Oglethorpe planned how he would take the city. He initially planned for a siege and an assault, but this quickly proved impractical given his lack of supplies. Next, Oglethorpe instituted a blockade that was designed to starve the inhabitants of the city into surrender; this was accomplished with the Royal Navy and soldiers on the land. Fort San Francisco de Pupo was used to block supplies entering through the St. John's River.
On 15 June, the main contingent of soldiers were resoundingly defeated by an attack by the Spaniards and Yamasee. Later that month, a flotilla aimed at reinforcing the city slipped through the blockade. As the navy was going to leave upon the start of the hurricane season on 5 July, Oglethorpe then planned to launch a combined assault, from the land and water. After delays, the plan was abandoned on 2 July when the navy announced an intent to leave on 4 July. He briefly considered holding the siege with 200 seamen and a sloop, but decided the idea was impractical. Finally, Oglethorpe was forced to abandon the siege. He commanded the rearguard during the retreat. The trustees presented a 1741 plan to divide Georgia into two sections, but Oglethorpe refused to work with them.
Spain launched a counter-invasion of Georgia in 1742. Oglethorpe led his force in a defeat of Spain, decisively winning the Battle of Bloody Marsh. On 25 February 1742, he was made a brigadier general. He led another unsuccessful attack on St. Augustine in 1743. That year, William Stephens was named the president of Georgia. The appointment was a product of the trustees' frustration with Oglethorpe's lack of co-operation. He continued to hold practical control over Frederica and let Stephens control Savannah. Stephens' government began to not always defer to Oglethorpe's wishes, as did local officials. In response, Oglethorpe made another bid to hold his power, feeling Georgia functioned best "when there was no other but himself to direct and determine all controversies."
The ODNB considers that Oglethorpe's "military contribution was of the very highest order and significance". While the loss of the siege of St. Augustine was attributed by some to Oglethorpe, Baine concludes that "Oglethorpe certainly made mistakes of generalship, but he was not the principal cause of its failure." The war ended in November 1748 and the 42nd Regiment of Foot was removed from Georgia. By 1749, the Trustees had lost most of their interest in Georgia, and they gave up its charter three years later.
Oglethorpe was heavily criticized by many for supporting the ban in the late 1730s, and after his return to England the trustees requested that the ban be ended in 1750. It has been suggested, first by William Stephens in his diary, that Oglethorpe held slaves on his land in South Carolina while slavery was banned in Georgia, but Wilkins writes that the veracity of the claim is "uncertain"—there is no direct evidence supporting it—and he concludes that "the probability appears low that ... Oglethorpe owned slaves."
Biographer Michael Thurmond, himself of African descent, argues controversially in James Oglethorpe, Father Of Georgia — A Founder’s Journey From Slave Trader to Abolitionist (2024), that Oglethorpe's relationship with slavery was complex and evolved over time. Originally a board member of the Royal African Company, he became disillusioned with the institution after visiting America where he was repelled by its cruelty. Thurmond states that there is evidence in the form of correspondence and other records of his growing hostility to slavery. As early as 1739 Oglethorpe asserted that the introduction of slavery into Georgia would “occasion the misery of thousands in Africa.” He assisted two former slaves who traveled to England to raise awareness about the evils of the institution. Later in life he became associated with Granville Sharp and Hannah More, two of the early founders of the abolitionist movement in Great Britain.
Oglethorpe served in the British Army during the Jacobite rising of 1745. By then a major general, he took command of approximately 600 government troops which were mustering in York, England. Jacobite Army troops under Charles Edward Stuart had penetrated into England, and Oglethorpe was tasked in December 1745 with intercepting retreating Jacobite forces before they reached Preston, Lancashire. On 17 December, he was initially ordered to engage with the rear of the Jacobite army, led by George Murray, at Shap. The orders were amended to trap the Jacobites in town early the next morning upon Oglethorpe's intelligence, but the Jacobite Army left as the orders were changed. The following day, Oglethorpe travelled to Clifton, Cumbria and captured a bridge from the Jacobites before the Clifton Moor Skirmish that evening. At the skirmish, the government forces were unable to prevent the Jacobites from escaping. Because Oglethorpe had allowed the Jacobites to escape from Shap, he was blamed by being accused of disobeying orders, and potentially being a Jacobitism. The following year, Oglethorpe was court martialled for his actions. After a lengthy defense, he was acquitted by a panel of twelve high-ranking Army officers, led by Thomas Wentworth. On 19 September 1747, Oglethorpe was promoted to lieutenant general. However, the Duke of Cumberland, who had been in command at Clifton Moor, blacklisted Oglethorpe from holding a command ever again.
He then worked on various reform efforts, with little success, until Oglethorpe and Philip Russell lost their parliamentary seats to James More Molyneux and Philip Carteret Webb in 1754. Oglethorpe's loss has been attributed to his moving to Essex and supporting the Jewish Naturalisation Act, but Baine considers that the election was "rigged against him". Webb and Molyneux gained control of the constituency's steward, bailiff, and constable. They allowed more voters to be admitted than were qualified, in a process known as Faggot voter. Around fifty more people voted in the 1754 election than had the previous cycle, in stark contrast to voter numbers that had remained essentially the same since Oglethorpe was elected. While Oglethorpe and Burrell protested to parliament, the election results were upheld.
From 1755 to 1761 Oglethorpe was out of England. Very little is known about what he did over these six years; they are referred to as his "missing years". On 22 September, he had unsuccessfully petitioned George III to reactivate his Georgia regiment, and by 9 December Oglethorpe had left England and arrived in Rotterdam. There he requested a position in the military of Prussia from his friend James Francis Edward Keith, whom Oglethorpe had fought with in the 1710s. There are no records of what happened to Oglethorpe in the five years after he wrote a letter to Keith on 3 May 1756. Boswell wrote that he "went abroad in 1756 to his freind Keith ... fought in the army" and "was with Keith when killed". Baine concludes that Oglethorpe took the pseudonym 'John Tebay' and likely joined the Prussian Army in mid to late 1756. He was likely with Keith and Frederick the Great during the campaigns of the Seven Years' War. He probably left the army to visit family over part of the winter. In early 1758, Oglethorpe was almost discovered by Joseph Yorke, an Englishman. He was wounded at a battle on 14 October. Keith reportedly fell into Oglethorpe's arms when he was killed at the Battle of Hochkirch. He left the army in March 1759 and had returned to England by October 1761.
In May 1768, during the French conquest of Corsica, Oglethorpe pseudonymously published three essays in support of Corsican independence. He advocated strongly in favor of their independence, along with Boswell.
As colonists in America became increasingly vocal about perceived injustices, Oglethorpe did not publicly speak out, though he privately sympathized with them. From June 1777 to April 1778, Oglethorpe and Granville Sharp unsuccessfully attempted to convince the British leadership to end the war and give the colonists rights as full Englishmen. There was a claim that Oglethorpe was offered refusal to command the British Army in the American Revolutionary War, a claim that Spalding notes scholars have been "unable to discover a shred of truth" to. In June 1785, Oglethorpe met John Adams twice in London.
Oglethorpe died on 1 July 1785, at an estate in Cranham in Essex, to the east of London. He was 88. The cause of death is unknown, though it is thought to have been a disease like influenza that worsened into pneumonia.
In 1986, the corps of cadets at the University of North Georgia in Dahlonega, Georgia officially adopted the name of the unit as the "Boar's Head Brigade". The name came from the boar's head on the department crest approved by the U.S. Army adjutant general on 11 August 1937. The boar's head was a part of the family crest of James Oglethorpe, and is a symbol of fighting spirit and hospitality so deeply a part of Georgia's heritage and the spirit of the corps of cadets at the University of North Georgia.
All Saints' Church in Cranham, where Oglethorpe was buried, was rebuilt . However, the new church stands on the same foundations as the old one, and Oglethorpe's poetic marble memorial is on the south wall of the chancel, as before. In the 1930s, the president of Oglethorpe University Thornwell Jacobs excavated the Oglethorpe family vault in the centre of the chancel at All Saints', although permission to translate the General's relics to a purpose-built shrine at Oglethorpe University (Atlanta) had been refused by the archdeacon.
The James Oglethorpe Monument in Chippewa Square, Savannah, Georgia, created by sculptor Daniel Chester French and architect Henry Bacon, was unveiled in 1910. Oglethorpe faces south, toward Georgia's one-time enemy in Spanish Empire Florida, and his sword is drawn. Another of Savannah's squares, Oglethorpe Square, is named for him.
The city of Fort Oglethorpe in Catoosa and Walker County, Georgia is named for him.
Oglethorpian anniversaries have since led to the donation of the altar rail at All Saints' by a ladies charity in Georgia. In 1996, then Georgia Governor Zell Miller attended Oglethorpe tercentenary festivities in Godalming and at Corpus Christi College, Oxford.
Corpus Christi College holds two portraits of Oglethorpe, a drawing of the general as an old man, which hangs in the Senior Common Room, and a portrait in oils, which hangs in the Breakfast Room.
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