James Edward Oglethorpe Biography

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Hi, my name is James Edward Oglethorpe. I was born on December 22, 1696 in London England. While I was just a young boy, at age fourteen, I joined the British army. A couple years later he became a member of the House of Commons, which is the lower branch of Parliament. I was a member of the Parliament for thirty-two years until I retired in 1752. My life took a huge turn when my friend named Castell was declared a pauper because he couldn’t pay his bills and then was sent to debtor prison where he wasn’t able to afford the fees. He had died because he was put in a house where his inmates were infected with smallpox. The death of my good friend inspired me to investigate the conditions of the prisons. Since I was a member of the…show more content…
Tensions had been rising between England and Spain and in 1736 I built Fort Frederica on St. Simons Island as my main defense against the Spanish colonists. Three years later the war between Spain and Britain was about to begin at anytime and I knew that Georgia would become the field of battle. Along the way I formed alliances with a few Native American tribes, and then my man count had reached two thousand. I managed to capture three Spanish forts, but was not able to seize St. Augustine. Sickness broke out and many of my soldiers from South Carolina were deserted, so in June 1740 I pulled my troops out. The efforts of both me and my men were so effective that the Spanish did not go into Georgia for two…show more content…
A couple others complained that I had pocketed public funds and mishandled the invade of St. Augustine, so I had to return to England for a trial that cleared me of all the charges, and I wasn’t allowed to come back to Georgia again. In 1745 I was made a major general and was sent off to Scotland to control a rebellion. The other original trustees surrendered Georgia’s character and the colony became a royal province. During the American Revolution I was offered command of the British Army troops fighting against the Georgia colonists, but I declined. In 1785 at the age of 88 I was one of the first British dignitaries to visit John Adams, who came to England to serve as America’s first ambassador, but I died later that year on July 1st,
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