Oglethorpe, James Edward

Oglethorpe, James Edward

▪ British military officer
born Dec. 22, 1696, London
died June 30/, July 1, 1785, Cranham Hall, Essex, Eng.
 English army officer, philanthropist, and founder of the British colony of Georgia in America.

      Educated at the University of Oxford, he entered the army in 1712 and joined the Austrian army fighting the Turks in 1717. On his return to England in 1722, he entered Parliament. In 1729 he presided over a committee that brought about prison reforms. This experience gave him the idea of founding a new colony in North America as a place where the poor and destitute could start afresh and where persecuted Protestant sects could find refuge.

      In 1732 Oglethorpe secured a charter for his colony in what became Georgia. In 1733 he accompanied the first settlers and founded Savannah. On the outbreak of the war between England and Spain in 1739, he led a vigorous defense of the territory. He was foiled in an attempt to capture the Spanish town of St. Augustine, Fla., but was able to repel an attack on Fort Frederica, Georgia (1742). Oglethorpe's popularity, not only with his hurriedly raised and imperfectly trained troops but also with all classes of the population, helped to assure the safety of the colony.

      Oglethorpe returned to England in 1743, where he resumed his parliamentary career.

Additional Reading
Amos Aschbach Ettinger, James Edward Oglethorpe, Imperial Idealist (1936, reprinted 1968); Phinizy Spalding, Oglethorpe in America (1977); Phinizy Spalding and Harvey H. Jackson (eds.), Oglethorpe in Perspective: Georgia's Founder After Two Hundred Years (1989).

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Universalium. 2010.

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  • Oglethorpe,James Edward — O·gle·thorpe (ōʹgəl thôrp ), James Edward. 1696 1785. English soldier, philanthropist, and colonizer. He secured a charter for the colony of Georgia (1732) as a refuge for unemployed debtors newly released from prison. * * * …   Universalium

  • Oglethorpe, James (Edward) — born Dec. 22, 1696, London, Eng. died June 30/July 1, 1785, Cranham Hall, Essex, Eng. English army officer. After serving in the British army from 1712 to 1722, he entered Parliament, where he became interested in prison reform. In 1732 he… …   Universalium

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  • Edward — /ed weuhrd/, n. 1. Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall ( The Black Prince ), 1330 76, English military leader (son of Edward III). 2. Lake, a lake in central Africa, between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo: a source of the Nile.… …   Universalium

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