James Oglethorpe

Uncommon card · No. 139765

General James Edward Oglethorpe (22 December 1696 – 30 June 1785) was a British army officer, Tory politician and colonial administrator best known for founding the Province of Georgia in British America. As a social reformer, he hoped to resettle Britain's "worthy poor" into British colonies located at the New World, initially focusing on those in debtors' prisons. Born to a prominent British family, Oglethorpe left college in Britain and a British Army purchase commissions in order to travel to France, where he attended a military academy before fighting under Prince Eugene of Savoy in the Austro-Turkish War. He returned to Britain in 1718 and was elected to the British House of Commons in 1722. His early years were relatively undistinguished until 1729, when he was made chair of the Gaols Committee that investigated British debtors' prisons. After the report was published, to widespread attention, Oglethorpe and the others began publicising the idea of a new British colony to serve as...

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