About Friends of Oglethorpe

HISTORY of GENERAL JAMES EDWARD OGLETHORPE
MP for Haslemere and founder of the Colony of Georgia in America– humanitarian, legislator, administrator and soldier.

Dr. Samuel Johnson to General James Oglethorpe at dinner in London on Monday April 10th 1775
" I know no man whose life would be more interesting. If I were furnished with materials, I should be very glad to write it."

James Boswell on General Oglethorpe:
“This extraordinary man was as remarkable for his learning and taste as for his other eminent qualities, and no man was more prompt, active and generous in encouraging merit.”

James Edward Oglethorpe was born in London on December 22nd 1696 and was baptised the following day in the church of St Martin in the Fields by the Archbishop of Canterbury. He was the tenth and youngest child of Sir Theophilus Oglethorpe, a soldier and staunch supporter of the Stuart Dynasty, and his wife Eleanor Wall, an official at the Royal Court.
James spent his childhood at his parent’s country home, Westbrook (now the Meath Home) near Godalming in Surrey, and was educated at Eton, Corpus Christi College Oxford and at a military academy in Paris. His education as a soldier was completed by an attachment to Prince Eugene of Savoy in a campaign against the Turks. He was present at the battle for Belgrade in 1717 where he was commended for his bravery.

Sir Theophilus Oglethorpe bought Westbrook House and manor in 1688. The ownership confirmed some parliamentary election influence in the nearby Borough of Haslemere and in due course he was elected to Parliament as one of that town’s members. He died in 1702 and was followed in the family seat by his two elder surviving sons, Lewis, who died in 1704 as a result of wounds received in Marlborough’s campaigns, and Theophilus Junior who had to leave the country as a result of his political affiliations.

By 1722 James was in possession of Westbrook and was elected to Parliament for the “family” parliamentary seat of Haslemere. He became involved in a number of humanitarian issues culminating in appointment to the chair of a Parliamentary Committee looking into conditions in the gaols. He became interested in the welfare of prisoners when a friend of his, Robert Castell, was imprisoned for debt and, being unable to bribe his gaolers, was put into a common cell with prisoners suffering from smallpox, which he caught and died. The Committee made recommendations for improvements to conditions in the gaols, which were later enacted.
As a result of his experiences with the Gaol Committee Oglethorpe became interested in the welfare of the poor and when a group of gentlemen obtained a charter for the founding of a new colony in America he joined them as a Trustee. This would provide an opportunity for the worthy poor to remake their lives. A site to the south of the Carolinas was chosen. As well as the humanitarian objective the new colony would establish a buffer between the established colonies to the north and the Spanish and French settlements to the south and west. Indeed this latter aim became the principal reason for establishing the new settlement. The official charter to establish the colony, to be called Georgia in honour of the King, was signed by George 11 on April 21st 1732.
The first group of settlers, comprising a cross section of society but no released convicted debtors, set sail for America on the ship Anne in November 1732. James Oglethorpe sailed with them and as the only Trustee to do so was the de facto leader of the group and of the new colony. After first calling at Charleston in South Carolina Oglethorpe arrived in the Savannah River on February 17th 1733, climbed Yamacraw Bluff and selected the site for Savannah. The plan for the town was laid out on a spacious grid pattern, similar to a Roman town, with squares at some of the intersections, the first in the Americas to be so designed.

From the first Georgia was governed on a philanthropic and humanitarian basis. Freedom of religion was allowed. For example a Jewish contingent was permitted to settle in July 1733 and Lutheran Salzburgers arrived in March 1734. Oglethorpe made a particular point of befriending the native Americans and of understanding their customs. He negotiated an agreement with the local Yamacraw Indian Mico, or Chief, Tomochichi and he maintained stable relations with all of the Indian tribes in the area, including the regulation of trade with them. His fair treatment of the Indians saved Georgia from warfare with them, something not achieved by colonies to the north. Regulations introduced for the settlers, partly for military reasons, partly humanitarian, included the banning of blacks, either as slaves or free, the prohibition of strong liquors and the granting of land to male heirs only.

Oglethorpe and Tomochichi became firm personal friends and when he returned to England in 1734 to consult withy his fellow Trustees he took the Chief, his wife, his nephew and heir and six other Yamacraw Indians with him. The arrival of the party caused great excitement in London where the Indians were received by the King and Queen and the Archbishop of Canterbury, among many others, and visited all the sights in and around the city. Unfortunately one of them fell ill with smallpox and died. To get them away from London Oglethorpe took them to Godalming where they stayed at the White Hart Inn. After their return to the capital they resumed their social round before returning to Georgia.

After his return to the Colony Oglethorpe continued to consolidate the settlement. He travelled widely in the interior and in 1736 ordered the founding of Fort Frederica on St Simon’s Island in the south and of Augusta on the Savannah River to the north. Fort Frederica was a principal part of the Colony’s defences against the Spanish. Augusta had been a meeting place for Indian traders for many years and became Georgia’s most important stronghold in the interior. The two places were named after the Prince and Princess of Wales.

Oglethorpe had brought back to Georgia with him from England the brothers John and Charles Wesley, at that time Church of England ministers, who hoped to convert the Indians to Christianity. However John became a chaplain at Savannah and Charles was employed as Oglethorpe’s secretary at Frederica. Neither had a very successful stay in the Colony : Charles left after a short time and John a little later.

In late 1736 Oglethorpe again left Georgia for London. Relations between Spain and Britain were deteriorating and he feared a Spanish attack. When he returned to the Colony it was as commander in chief of all the British forces in South Carolina and Georgia and he brought with him a regiment of soldiers. From now on most of his time was occupied with military affairs and he was in Frederica more often than Savannah.

In 1739 the long expected war with Spain, the so called War of Jenkins’ Ear, broke out. The following year Oglethorpe led an unsuccessful campaign to capture the Spanish town of St Augustine in Florida. In 1742 the Spanish attacked Georgia but were soundly defeated by Oglethorpe’s forces at the Battle of Bloody Marsh on St Simon’s Island near Fort Frederica. Although not a major battle in military terms, there were few casualties on either side, it was a victory of major political importance – the Spanish never again attacked the British Colonies. Oglethorpe was hailed as the saviour of the King’s possessions in America.

Oglethorpe, by now a General, left Georgia for England in 1743. As it happened he never returned to America again. He was received in London as a hero but a dissident officer had made accusations against him and he had to face a Court Martial. In May 1744 he was vindicated of all the charges. Administering a colony had been expensive and Oglethorpe had used much of his own money, some of it raised by borrowing using Westbrook as collateral. In the same week as he was acquitted Parliament voted to reimburse him for most of his out of pocket expenses. Later that year he married in Westminster Abbey Elizabeth Wright, an heiress from Cranham in Essex. They spent their honeymoon at Westbrook but thereafter they never lived in the house, spending their time between their London house and Cranham Hall, Elizabeth’s family home.

In 1745 Oglethorpe was still intending to return to Georgia and with this in mind he raised a regiment of Rangers to strengthen the garrison there. However in July of that year Prince Charles Edward Stuart, “Bonnie Prince Charlie”, the Young Pretender, landed in Scotland and the “45” Rebellion started. Oglethorpe was ordered north with his regiment and other troops to join the army of the younger son of the King, the Duke of Cumberland (“Butcher” Cumberland), the Royal Commander in Chief. During Prince Charles’ retreat Oglethorpe was ordered to cut off the rebel army at Shap. This he failed to do, his troops were tired and his horses needed forage, and he was accused of disobedience. In September 1746 he faced another, much more serious, Court Martial. Again he was acquitted but although he was promoted to Major General he was never again employed by the Crown or given an official appointment. Cumberland never forgave him, suspecting him of disloyalty to the Hanoverian Dynasty – his father had been a strong supporter of the Stuarts and his sisters still were – a charge that was in fact quite untrue.

Until 1765, when the Duke of Cumberland died, he remained out of the public eye. For a while he travelled incognito in Europe and served as a volunteer in the Prussian Army during the Seven Years War on the staff of Field Marshall James Keith, a friend from his days at the Paris Military Academy. He was at Keith’s side when the Field Marshall was killed at the Battle of Hochkirch in 1758.

All the time James Oglethorpe was founding and governing Georgia, fighting the Spanish and running into trouble during the “45” he remained a Member of Parliament for Haslemere. Indeed after his initial election in 1722 he was successful in the elections of 1727, 1734, 1741 and 1747. He lost his seat in an election of doubtful honesty in 1754 and although he stood again both in Haslemere and for another constituency he never again served in Parliament. During these years he was involved in trying to improve the lot of British seamen and, as an executer and trustee of the will of Hans Sloane, in the founding of the British Museum as a national institution.

Oglethorpes retirement years were spent in London, latterly his home was in Grosvenor Street, and at Cranham. His wide circle of friends included many in the arts and literary world, including Oliver Goldsmith, Edmund Burke, David Garrick, Joshua Reynolds and, especially Dr Samuel Johnson and his biographer James Boswell. The latter frequently mentions Oglethorpe in his writings. In 1785 John Adams was appointed the first minister from the newly independent United States of America to the Court of St James. As the only surviving founder of one of the original 13 colonies Oglethorpe called on Adams. Soon after the minister returned the call.

Later in 1785 James Edward Oglethorpe fell ill and on June 30th, six months short of his 89th birthday and by then the senior general in the British Army, he died at his Essex home. He is buried in a vault, together with his wife who died two years later, beneath the chancel of All Saints Parish Church in Cranham. There is a large memorial plaque to him on the south wall of the chancel.