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Biography
In 1714 he entered Corpus Christi College, Oxford, but in the same year joined the army of Eugene of Savoy, soon becoming his adjutant and distinguished himself in the campaign against the Turks in 1716-1718.
In 1722, he was elected a member of parliament, advocated for improving the living conditions of sailors on ships of the English navy, as well as prisoners of debt prisons, while actively promoting the idea of establishing new colonies on the North American continent that could be populated by the insolvent population of England and oppressed Protestants from continental Europe. In 1728, he managed to pass a law in parliament on the reform of debt prisons, and in 1730 — to obtain permission on the basis of a new colony in America.
The first group of colonists, led by Oglethorpe himself, went to the territory of the modern American state of Georgia in 1732, arriving at the end of that year on the territory of present-day South Carolina and establishing the first settlement in the future Georgia on February 12, 1733, concluding a treaty with the Yamakrav Indian tribe. On February 21, 1734, Oglethorpe founded the first Masonic lodge in Georgia (according to some sources, the first lodge in North America).
In 1739-1742 Oglethorpe led British and allied Indian troops in the campaign against Spanish Florida, which was part of the War of Jenkins' Ear and, accordingly, the War of the Austrian Succession. He personally commanded the army during many successful raids on Spanish territory, defended Fort Frederica, but in 1740 failed to take Fort San Augustine. Modern historians often rate him as a bad military commander, but when in 1742 the Spaniards invaded Georgia from Florida, and Oglethorpe managed to defeat their troops at the Battle of Bloody Marsh, in England he became considered a hero and, returning home a year later, began to receive regular promotions in military service; he continued his career in parliament and at the same time was engaged in organizing the recruitment of troops to be sent to Georgia in order to protect it from the Spaniards.
In 1745, he participated in the suppression of the Second Jacobite Uprising and, in particular, in the persecution of the rebels at Shap, but due to bad weather interrupted the pursuit for one night, thanks to which the Jacobites were able to escape to Scotland. Oglethorpe was put on trial for this act; as a result, he was acquitted and even awarded the rank of general, but was never given command of troops again.
A few months before his death in 1785, he undertook a trip to the newly independent United States of America as the first British envoy.
Oglethorpe University is named after James Oglethorpe.
