Page 36 - Pilgrims in Georgia

V Oglethorpe leads the way!

“As a Christian, visionary, social reformer, and military leader,
James Oglethorpe conceived of and implemented his plan to
establish the colony of Georgia. It was through his initiatives in
England in 1732 that the British government authorized the
establishment of its first new colony in North America in more
than five decades. Later that year he led the expedition of
colonists that landed in Savannah early in 1733. Oglethorpe
spent most of the next decade in Georgia, where he directed the
economic and political development of the new colony,
defended it militarily, and continued to generate support and

recruit settlers in England and other parts of Europe.” James Edward Oglethorpe

James Oglethorpe was an Englishman born near London in 1696. He had been in the military, and college at Oxford, and in
1722, he was elected to the House of Commons, a part of the British government, known as Parliament to a seat previously
held by his father and two older brothers. At that time England was having financial problems. Many people were in debt
and could be put in prison for debt. A friend of Oglethorpe, Robert Castell had died in 1729 after being exposed to smallpox
during his time in a debtor’s prison. Castell's death from the disease led Oglethorpe to launch a national campaign to
reform England's prisons. He was named the chairman of a parliamentary committee to investigate the jails and as a result
steps were taken to reform London's prisons. Oglethorpe's efforts to expose and correct prison abuses gained him national
attention, and he became widely regarded as one of Britain's most active humanitarians.

While doing this work Oglethorpe met Dr. Thomas Bray, a clergyman in the Church of England who was the founder of the
Christian organizations known as “the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts and the Society for
Promoting Christian Knowledge”. Bray worked to provide Christian books and literature for pastors, lay people, and
libraries. In the colonies, he hoped to provide a library for each parish and his efforts are credited with the eventual
creation of almost 100 libraries, the first important effort to establish libraries in the New World. But Oglethorpe was also
attracted to Dr. Bray's concern and plan for the poor to be allowed to seek a better life for themselves in the overseas British
colonies, an idea which James was in agreement with. Upon his death in 1730, Dr. Bray gave about 5,000 English Pounds to
Oglethorpe and the other administrators of his estate, to use in the colonies. Oglethorpe with other administrators, called
“the Associates of Dr. Bray”, formed the Georgia Society that year and petitioned Parliament for a charter to form a colony.