James Oglethorpe
| James Edward Oglethorpe | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Governor of Georgia | |
|
In office 1732–1743 |
|
| Prime Minister | Sir Robert Walpole |
| Preceded by | Office created |
| Succeeded by | William Stephens |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
22 December 1696 Godalming, Surrey, England |
| Died | 30 June 1785 (aged 88) Cranham, Essex, England |
| Spouse(s) | Elizabeth (née Wright) |
| Alma mater | Eton College, Corpus Christi, Oxford, a military academy, Paris, France |
| Profession | Statesman, soldier, agriculturalist |
| Religion | Anglican |
James Edward Oglethorpe (22 December 1696 – 30 June 1785) was a British soldier, Member of Parliament, and philanthropist, as well as the founder of the colony of Georgia. As a social reformer, he hoped to resettle Britain's worthy poor in the New World, initially focusing on those in debtors' prisons.
James Oglethorpe was born in Surrey, the son of Sir Theophilus Oglethorpe (1650–1702) of Westbrook Place, Godalming, and his wife Eleanor Lady Oglethorpe (1662–1732). He entered Corpus Christi College, Oxford in 1714, but in the same year left to join 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 during the Austro-Turkish War of 1716–18 he served with distinction in the campaign against the Turks.
After his return to England, he was elected Member of Parliament for Haslemere in 1722. He became a leading humanitarian. In 1728 in Parliament, he advocated reform of the terrible conditions experienced by sailors in the British Royal Navy by publishing an anonymous pamphlet, 'The Sailors Advocate.'
In 1728, three years before conceiving the Georgia colony, Oglethorpe chaired a Parliamentary committee on prison reform. The committee documented horrendous abuses in three debtors' prisons. As a result of the committee's actions, many debtors were released from prison with no means of support. Oglethorpe viewed this as part of the larger problem of urbanisation, which was depleting the countryside of productively employed people and depositing them in cities, particularly London, where they often became impoverished or resorted to criminal activity. To address this problem, Oglethorpe and a group of associates, many of whom served on the prison committee, petitioned in 1730 to form the Trustees for the Establishment of the Colony of Georgia in America. The petition was finally approved in 1732, and the first ship, led by Oglethorpe, departed for the New World in November.
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