The New Student's Reference Work/Oglethorpe, James Edward

O′glethorpe, James Edward, an English general and founder of Georgia, was born at London, Dec. 21, 1698. He served in the army, and was thirty years in Parliament. He planned a colony in America as a refuge for debtors, then imprisoned in jails, and for persecuted German Protestants. George II gave the land, which was named Georgia after him, Parliament contributed $50,000, and in 1733 he took out 130 persons and founded Savannah. Another party, including the two Wesleys, went out in 1735, and in 1738 Ogelthorpe returned to Georgia with a regiment of 600 men, in anticipation of a war with Spain. He invaded Florida, was unsuccessful in an attack on St. Augustine, but repulsed a Spanish invasion of Georgia. He left the colony in 1743, and surrendered the charter to the British government in 1752. He died in England, Jan. 30, 1785. See Life by Bruce.