81 Facts About James Oglethorpe

Lieutenant-General James Edward Oglethorpe was a British Army officer, Tory politician and colonial administrator best known for founding the Province of Georgia in British North America.

James Oglethorpe returned to England in 1718 and was elected to the British House of Commons in 1722.

James Oglethorpe was a major figure in Georgia's early history, holding much civil and military power and instituting a ban on slavery and alcohol.

James Oglethorpe then defeated a Spanish invasion of Georgia in 1742.

James Oglethorpe led government troops in the Jacobite rising of 1745 and was blamed for his role in the Clifton Moor Skirmish.

James Oglethorpe lost reelection to the House of Commons in 1754 and left England, possible serving undercover in the Prussian Army during the Seven Years' War.

James Oglethorpe's family supported Charles I of England during the English Civil War and suffered under Oliver Cromwell, but regained favour after the Stuart Restoration in 1660.

James Oglethorpe was named James after James II, reflecting his family's royalist sympathies, and Edward after James Francis Edward Stuart.

James Oglethorpe's father bought him a commission in Queen Anne's 1st Regiment of Foot Guards as an ensign in 1707.

James Oglethorpe then traveled to France, where his sisters Anne and Fanny lived.

James Oglethorpe attended the military academy at Lompres, near Paris, where he met and befriended fellow-student James Francis Edward Keith.

James Oglethorpe then fought in Sicily under General Georg Olivier Wallis in 1718 for several weeks.

When he was 26, James Oglethorpe inherited the family estate at Godalming in Surrey from his brother.

James Oglethorpe was first elected to the House of Commons as a Tory aligned with William Wyndham in 1722, representing Haslemere.

James Oglethorpe almost did not serve when, in a drunken brawl, he killed a man and spent five months in prison, before he was cleared of murder through a powerful friend's influence and released from prison.

In contrast, Sweet writes that James 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.

In 1728, in response to the poor living and working conditions of sailors in the Royal Navy, James Oglethorpe published an anonymous pamphlet, The Sailors Advocate, about press gangs and pay issues.

James Oglethorpe urged reform of the prisons, mainly through prosecution of those in charge of them.

Bambridge was acquitted of charges, and James Oglethorpe denounced both acquittals.

James Oglethorpe led another committee of the same nature in 1754.

James Oglethorpe argued against a royal grant of 115,000 pounds to cover arrearages, considering it extravagant.

James Oglethorpe initially opposed Britain's involvement in making peace in Europe, but by 1730 had begun advocating military preparedness.

James Oglethorpe served on a committee investigating the Charitable Corporation after its 1731 collapse.

James Oglethorpe began looking for other sources of funding and met Thomas Bray, a reverend and philanthropist.

Baine writes that beginning in 1730, James 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 James Oglethorpe and titled Some accounts of the design of the trustees for establishing colonys in America.

James 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.

James Oglethorpe is thought to have paid for the publication of Select Tracts and A New and Accurate Account.

That summer, a letter written by Ayuba Suleiman Diallo, an enslaved African trader, reached James Oglethorpe, who purchased and freed Diallo.

James Oglethorpe left for England and expanded Georgia further south when he returned.

When James Oglethorpe returned to England in 1737 he was confronted by both angry British and Spanish governments.

That year, James Oglethorpe granted land to 40 Jewish settlers against the orders of the Georgia trustees.

From 1732 to 1738, James Oglethorpe was the de facto leader of Georgia and dominated both the military and the civil aspects of the country.

James Oglethorpe lived in a tent separated from the rest of the colonists; some of them called him "father".

James Oglethorpe paid for the construction of a 'first fort' to protect Savannah, but it was not completed.

James Oglethorpe invited talented foreigners to immigrate to the colony.

When James Oglethorpe arrived in Georgia, Native Americans were well into the process of integration with the Europeans.

James Oglethorpe saw Native Americans as participants in the new economy Europeans brought to America.

James Oglethorpe negotiated with Tomochichi, chief of the Yamacraw tribe for land to build Savannah on.

James Oglethorpe commissioned Patrick Mackay a captain and delegated the task to him.

James Oglethorpe was widely acclaimed in London, although his expansionism was not welcomed in all quarters.

When Tomochichi returned to England, he said that parting with James Oglethorpe was "like the day of death".

James Oglethorpe 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 James Oglethorpe returned to England in 1734, he had left an authority vacuum behind.

James Oglethorpe drilled soldiers and oversaw the construction of a fort.

Increasingly James Oglethorpe focused on Georgia's southern border and military matters.

James Oglethorpe remained confident in the belief that he was "best suited to govern".

James Oglethorpe held a conference with the Natives as commissioner for Indian Affairs in 1736.

Complaints about James Oglethorpe's actions came from Spain, Carolina, the trustees, and discontented citizens.

Discontent increased, which James Oglethorpe considered a symptom of his absence.

When James Oglethorpe left England the first time, Robert Walpole had ordered him to avoid intentional conflict with Spain.

James Oglethorpe requested unsuccessfully to be allowed to raise a militia, but was granted 20,000 pounds and made General of the Forces of South Carolina and Georgia.

James Oglethorpe was offered, but declined governorship of South Carolina.

James 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.

James Oglethorpe allowed a pirate to attack Spanish shipping and worked to secure the support of the Native Americans in the area by meeting with them.

James Oglethorpe soon became very sick, and remained in poor health for the duration of the campaign.

James Oglethorpe 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 colony sent artillery and ships, leading James Oglethorpe to conclude that South Carolina had given "all the assistance they could".

James Oglethorpe struggled with a lack of equipment and skill needed to take a besieged city; there were no engineers, draft horses, or gunners.

James Oglethorpe initially planned for a siege and an assault, but this quickly proved impractical given his lack of supplies.

James Oglethorpe briefly considered holding the siege with 200 seamen and a sloop, but decided the idea was impractical.

The trustees presented a 1741 plan to divide Georgia into two sections, but James Oglethorpe refused to work with them.

James Oglethorpe led his force in a defeat of Spain, decisively winning the Battle of Bloody Marsh.

James Oglethorpe continued to hold practical control over Frederica and let Stephens control Savannah.

James Oglethorpe opposed slavery because he felt that it prevented Georgia from serving as an effective buffer, because he felt slaves would work with the Spaniards to gain their freedom.

James Oglethorpe felt that slavery would have a negative effect on "the manners and morality of Georgia's white inhabitants".

James 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.

James Oglethorpe continued to be somewhat involved in the colony's affairs, attempting to stop a distinction being established between holding civil and military power, but he never returned to Georgia and generally was uninterested in the activities of the trustees.

James Oglethorpe was subject to a court-martial, in which it was alleged he misused funds.

James Oglethorpe served in the British Army during the Jacobite rising of 1745.

However, the Duke of Cumberland, who had been in command at Clifton Moor, blacklisted James Oglethorpe from holding a command ever again.

James Oglethorpe 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.

James 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".

James Oglethorpe served on the committee of the Hospital for the Maintenance and Education of exposed and deserted young Children and was a member of the Committee to encourage British fisheries.

Baine concludes that James Oglethorpe took the pseudonym 'John Tebay' and likely joined the Prussian Army in mid to late 1756.

James Oglethorpe was likely with Keith and Frederick the Great during the campaigns of the Seven Years' War.

James Oglethorpe probably left the army to visit family over part of the winter.

In early 1758, James Oglethorpe was almost discovered by Joseph Yorke, an Englishman.

James Oglethorpe advocated strongly in favor of their independence, along with Boswell.

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.

Corpus Christi College holds two portraits of James 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.