Trustees for the Establishment of the Colony of Georgia in America
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The Trustees for the Establishment of the Colony of Georgia in America, or simply the Georgia Trustees, was a body organized by James Edward Oglethorpe and associates following parliamentary investigations into prison conditions in Britain. After being granted a royal charter in 1732, Oglethorpe led the first group of colonists to the new colony, arriving there in February, 1733. The trustees governed Georgia, one of the Thirteen Colonies, from its founding until 1752, a period known as Trustee Georgia.
Parliament established a committee to investigate prison conditions in February, 1729 and Oglethorpe was appointed chair. The work of the committee resulted in the release of prisoners onto the streets of London and other cities without prospect of employment, and Oglethorpe conceived the idea of a colony as a means of productively employing such people. The plan for the colony quickly broadened in scope to encompass several philanthropic and strategic purposes. Funds from the D'Allone Legacy provided early financing for the Georgia Trust.[1]
Dr. Thomas Bray, a supporter of prison reform, invited Oglethorpe to use an organization he created some years earlier, known as the Associates of Dr. Bray, as the entity through which he might apply for a royal charter for the new colony. Oglethorpe expanded the group to include members of the prison committee and other social reformers. Bray died in February 1730, and Oglethorpe became the driving force behind the organization, which would soon give birth to the Georgia Trustees.[2][3]
The organization petitioned for a royal charter in July, 1731, which was signed by George II in April, 1732. After passing through government ministries, the charter reached the trustees in June, 1732.
Settlement of Georgia
Oglethorpe personally led the first group of colonists to the new colony, departing England on November, 1732 and arriving at the site of present-day Savannah, Georgia on February 12, 1733 O.S. The founding of Georgia is celebrated on February 1, 1733 N.S., the date corresponding to the modern Gregorian calendar adopted after the establishment of the colony.[4]
Oglethorpe and other Georgia Trustees developed an elaborate plan for settlement of the Georgia Colony. Now known as the Oglethorpe Plan, it specified how towns and regions would be laid out, how property would be equitably and sustainably allocated, and how society would be organized to defend itself on a perilous frontier.
Though Oglethorpe and others wanted debtors' prisoners to inhabit the new colony of Georgia, the Crown determined otherwise. The colony would become a military buffer for South Carolina against the Spanish and some Creek factions. Each of the new "Georgians" was chosen for their work skills, which would best contribute to the colony. The men were trained and made members of the militia for the defense of Georgia and South Carolina.
Most of the 114 traveled with wives, children and servants. Dr William Cox, appointed medical doctor for the colony, brought his wife Elizabeth, son, William, a young daughter and a male servant. In an early letter to the trustees, Dr Cox said: "the greatest health hazard in Savannah is alligators in the streets". However, Dr Cox was the first to die (after 59 days) from the real health hazard, that of consumption (i.e. tuberculosis), for which he had treated many colonists immediately after arrival. Dr Cox was buried with "the highest military honors" by Oglethorpe. His family returned to England, but his son William, only 11 years old, stayed and apprenticed to help build Bethesda, America's oldest orphanage.[5]
The trustees governed the Georgia colony from its founding in 1733 until June 28, 1752 O.S., a period known as Trustee Georgia.
Savannah: William Stephens, Secretary, later President of Savannah County and President of the Georgia colony. Numerous others served in various positions for shorter periods.
Revival of the Georgia Trustees
The concept of the Georgia Trustees was reconstituted in 2008 by the Georgia Historical Society under the suggestion of the Executive Vice-President Laura Garcia-Culler. Each year during the Georgia Historical Society Gala, two new members of the Georgia Trustees are admitted as members by the Georgia Historical Society in conjunction with the Governor's Office. These new members are chosen for their dedication, commitment, and contributions to the State of Georgia.[8]
2009: Margeurite Neel Williams (entrepreneur), Bernard Marcus (Home Depot founder)
2010: Hank Aaron (baseball player), Ted Turner (CNN founder and Chairman of Turner Enterprises, Inc.)
2012: Tom Cousins (Atlanta real estate developer and sports franchise owner), Andrew Young (former UN Ambassador, Mayor of Atlanta, US Congressman and civil rights leader)
2016: James Blanchard (retired Chairman of the Board and CEO, Synovus), Muhtar Kent (Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, The Coca-Cola Company)
Earl of Egmont was a title in the Peerage of Ireland, created in 1733 for John Perceval, 1st Viscount Perceval. It became extinct with the death of the twelfth earl in 2011.
Earl of Strafford is a title that has been created three times in English and British history.
The Province of Georgia was one of the Southern colonies in British America. It was the last of the thirteen original American colonies established by Great Britain in what later became the United States. In the original grant, a narrow strip of the province extended to the Pacific Ocean.
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William Beresford, 1st Baron Decies was an Anglo-Irish clergyman.
Anthony Ashley Cooper, 4th Earl of Shaftesbury Bt PC FRS was a British peer and philanthropist, who was one of the leading figures in the foundation of the colony of Georgia and served as Lord Lieutenant of Dorset from 1734 until his death.
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Trustee Georgia is the name of the period covering the first twenty years of Georgia history, from 1732–1752, because during that time the English Province of Georgia was governed by a board of trustees. England's King George II, for whom the colony was named, signed a charter establishing the colony and creating its governing board on July 7, 1732. His action culminated a lengthy process. Tomochichi was a Native American that resides along the Savannah River that allowed Oglethorpe to settle on the Yamacraw Bluff.
John Burton, D.D. (1696–1771) was an English clergyman and academic, a theological and classical scholar.
William Stephens, of Bowcombe, near Newport, Isle of Wight, and later Beaulieu, Savannah, Georgia, was an English Tory politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1702 to 1727. He emigrated to Georgia and was governor of the Province of Georgia between 1743 and 1751.
George Heathcote was an English merchant and philanthropist and Tory politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1727 to 1747. He was Lord Mayor of London in 1742.
The Oglethorpe Plan is an urban planning idea that was most notably used in Savannah, Georgia, one of the Thirteen Colonies, in the 18th century. The plan uses a distinctive street network with repeating squares of residential blocks, commercial blocks, and small green parks to create integrated, walkable neighborhoods.
James Edward Oglethorpe was a British soldier, Member of Parliament, and philanthropist, and the founder of the Province of Georgia in what was then colonial-era British America. As a social reformer, he hoped to resettle Britain's "worthy poor" in the New World, initially focusing on those in debtors' prisons.
Edward Noel, 1st Viscount Wentworth was a British peer.
Hercules Langford Rowley PC was an Irish politician and landowner.
References
↑ Meroney, Geraldine. “The London Entrepôt Merchants and the Georgia Colony.” The William and Mary Quarterly, vol. 25, no. 2, 1968, pp. 230–44. JSTOR website Retrieved 9 May 2023.
↑ Baine, Rodney M., ed. Creating Georgia. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1995. Pages xiv-xvii.
↑ Van Horne, John, ed. (1985). Religious Philanthropy and Colonial Slavery: The American Correspondence of the Associates of Dr. Bray, 1717–1777. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press. pp.9–16. ISBN0-252-01142-2.
↑ Coleman, Kenneth. ’’Colonial Georgia: A History’’. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1976. Pages 13-24.
↑ The Colonial Records of the State of Georgia’, Volume 1. Allen D. Candler, et al., eds. Pages 27-30. Manuscripts of the Earl of Egmont: Diary of Viscount Percival. Afterwards First Earl of Egmont. Volumes I-III. London: Historical Manuscripts Commission, 1920-23.
↑ Stevens, William. A History of Georgia: From Its First Discovery by Europeans to the ..., Volume 1. p.Appendix.
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