Fort Frederica National Monument ⓘ

James Edward Oglethorpe was born on December 22, 1696 in Godalming, Surrey, England. At age 10, he began his military career by enrolling in Queen Anne’s 1 st Regiment of Foot Guards. After a formal education at Eton College, he entered Corpus Christi College, Oxford in 1714. He left for Paris after a year to enroll in a military academy and at the outbreak of the Austro-Turkish War (1716-1718) in Europe, he joined the Imperial Austrian army under Prince Eugene of Savoy. Oglethorpe became aide-de-camp, participating in a handful of battles and sieges, all of which were victories for Prince Eugene’s army.

Upon his return to England he was elected Member of Parliament for his family seat, Haslemere, in 1722 at age 25. He would hold this seat through seven Parliaments for thirty-two years until his defeat in 1754. While in Parliament, Oglethorpe became a leading humanitarian. In his first five years in the House of Commons he was appointed to forty-two Parliamentary committees dealing with a wide variety of subjects, including a 1724 "committee to consider a Bill for the relief of insolvent debtors." He also became interested in the low rates of pay for the men of the Royal Navy, and the terrible grievance of impressment. Oglethorpe’s first publication “The Sailor's Advocate” (1728), was an indictment of the conditions of the period.

In 1728, Oglethorpe was head of yet another Parliamentary committee. It was established to investigate the major debtors’ prisons of London. Oglethorpe and his fellow parliamentarians reviewed the conditions of the prisons, the treatment of the prisoners, how the wardens were managing the prison, and produced reports on their findings. This was one of the first great ‘social’ inquiries by the House of Commons. Oglethorpe was motivated to investigate for several reasons, including the death of his friend Robert Castell, who died in debtors’ prison. Oglethorpe’s efforts were long remembered for their pioneering and humanitarian concerns for the plight of thousands of respectable people who found themselves imprisoned for nothing more than being unable to pay off debts to their creditors. The committee’s exposure both of the horrors of the prison underworld and the ill-treatment of debtors by the judicial system won widespread public acclaim.

The philanthropic and humanitarian nature of Oglethorpe inspired him to uproot these efforts and ideals into a new venture and the Trustees for Establishing the Colony of Georgia in America was formed to create a utopian colony, the product of a social experiment. The initial purpose of the colony was to have a military buffer for the southern British colonies against the Spanish in Florida. The other purpose of the colony was to be a place for what the Trustees envisioned as an opportunity for the “worthy poor” to have a second chance at life; a fresh start. In 1732, King George II signed the charter to establish the Georgia colony. Early on, Oglethorpe personally funded this venture by purchasing the needed supplies and other necessary items to get the colony started. There were also other philanthropists who donated to the cause, helping to establish the colony. In February 1733, Oglethorpe and the first group of colonists arrived at the future site of Savannah.

Only a few years after Savannah was established, Oglethorpe’s focus shifted to the military defense of the colony. The ownership of the land that Georgia was established in was debated, claimed by both Britain and Spain. Oglethorpe needed a strong military presence to assert the British claim. Frederica was established in 1736 to provide this military support and defense. It was also established during a time when tensions between the British and Spanish were at an all-time high. Once construction of the fort began in early 1736, Oglethorpe went back to England to speak to Parliament in hopes of acquiring a regiment of 700 men and the rank of a colonel. He was also commissioned as commander in chief of all His Majesty’s forces of South Carolina and Georgia. In 1738, he returned back to Frederica with the 42 nd Regiment of Foot. Less than a year later, Britain would officially declare war on Spain after a series of failed negotiations. This was primarily over trade disputes in the West Indies and the territorial dispute over Georgia. Oglethorpe was preparing for this, now setting his sights on St. Augustine and the Castillo de San Marcos. He launched a 38 day siege of the Spanish town in the summer of 1740; the first military engagement he commanded. It was also an unsuccessful attempt for the British, leaving St. Augustine in defeat. However, two years later, he would successfully repel a Spanish Invasion of Georgia, formally securing the Georgia colony for Britain and the future United States.

After ten years in Georgia, on July 23, 1743, James Oglethorpe boarded a ship for London, never to return again. His trip was prompted by two reasons: Inadequate funding from the Trustees and Parliament over the years had caused him to borrow heavily to pay the colony’s unfunded expenses. He had used Westbrook, his family home in Godalming, as security for the loans. A second reason for returning was to answer charges that an officer in his regiment had leveled against him as well as various charges laid against him by disaffected colonists. All charges were eventually dropped and Oglethorpe was also reimbursed over 60,000 from Parliament. He had married Elizabeth Wright in 1744 and they would be married until Oglethorpe’s death in 1785. Oglethorpe still had a very active military life up until the 1750’s. He lost his seat in parliament in 1754 and started to shift his interests into the arts. He would eventually reach the rank of general and be the senior officer for the entire British army in the 1760’s and 1770’s. During the Revolutionary War, he privately attempted to convince Parliament to negotiate a truce. Three weeks before he died, he spoke with John Adams, while in London, to express his “great esteem and regard for America”, the new country in whose creation he had played an important role. He died on June 30, 1785 and is buried at All Saints Church, Cranham, London.

In 1700, Coosaponakeesa was born at Coweta on the Ocmulgee River. Her Muskogean-Creek name translates to “Lovely Fawn”, but to generations she is known by her Christian name Mary Musgrove. Her father was Edmund Griffen, a British Indian trader; her mother was the sister of the powerful Brim, Chief Mico (leader) of the Tuckabatchees or Lower Creek Indians, making “Lovely Fawn” an Indian Princess. When Mary was about sixteen years old she married an Indian trader, John Musgrove, whose surname she has become known by. From the two worlds Mary straddled, her talent as an interpreter was remarkable.

In 1733 Oglethorpe and 116 emigrants set out to found the colony of Savannah. At Yamacraw Bluff, he solicited Mary Musgrove’s help as an interpreter for his meeting with the Yamacraw chief, Tomochichi. Oglethorpe realized that Mary could offer information and alliances he needed to secure British interests. Her services were hired at a salary of one hundred pounds sterling (about $500) per year. Mary assisted Oglethorpe in establishing treaties and in securing warriors to fight the Spanish. She supplied the struggling colonists with meat, bread, and liquor. When fighting broke out between the Spanish and British in 1742, Mary influenced the Creeks to aid the British forces, which led to the defeat of the Spanish on St. Simon’s Island.

Mary remarried twice after Musgrove’s death in 1735. Her second husband, Captain Jacob Matthews, died in 1742. Her third marriage to Thomas Bosomworth (1744) was fraught with political strife regarding his debts and gaining official recognition of large property grants, including Sapelo, St. Catherine’s, and Ossabaw Islands, from the Creeks to his wife, making her the largest landowner in colonial Georgia. Throughout her life Mary owned three trading posts: “The Cowpens” or “The Grange” on the Savannah River, “Mount Venture” on the SanSavilla Bluffs, and “The Forks” located where the Altamaha River forms. These resources and her influence and skill used in creating of the colony of Georgia make Mary Musgrove a woman of great historic value.

John Wesley is considered the founder of the modern Methodist Church. As a young man, he spent time in Georgia which helped prepare him for this later evangelical work. The physical, ministerial and spiritual challenges that Georgia afforded Wesley enabled him to meet later challenges with renewed vigor and a broader understanding of himself, the Holy Scriptures, and his fellow man.

Born in 1703 at Epworth, England, John Wesley was the son of an Anglican minister and the 15 th of 19 children. He attended both Charterhouse School and Oxford where he graduated in 1724. Three years later he was ordained as a minister at the age of 24. In 1729, he joined his brother Charles’ Holy Club whose members were derisively called Methodists. His education prepared him for life as an Anglican minister in England, yet his first real field of work lay far from England’s shores.

John Wesley set sail for Georgia with his brother, Charles, in 1735. After arriving in early 1736, John saw the venture as a key to the rebirth of what he termed ‘Primitive Christianity.’ He would carry the Gospel to a new land, encounter hardships, and thereby experience a new understanding of what the Christian faith entailed. He was stationed in Savannah while Charles was sent to Frederica to serve as James Oglethorpe’s secretary and Frederica’s minister. Early on ill health forced Charles to leave and John assumed some of Charles’ duties as minister to Frederica. John made five separate visits to Frederica from April 1736 to January 1737. In all, he spent roughly three months at Frederica. In addition to his duties as a minister at Savannah, John hoped to perform missionary work amongst the Creek and Cherokee of the region. He never was an effective missionary and wrote in his journal, “I came to convert the Indians, but, oh, who will convert me?” Controversy forced John from the colony. He became embroiled in court proceedings when he refused communion to Sophia Hopkey Williamson – a woman he had courted before her marriage to William Williamson. Many in the community felt that he was being vindictive towards the woman who scorned him.. Convinced that he would not receive a fair trial John left the colony of Georgia on December 2, 1737 noting in his journal, “about eight o’clock…I shook off the dust of my feet and left Georgia, after having preached the gospel there (not as I ought, but as I was able).”

After returning to England John Wesley had an experience he described as an ‘infilling of the Holy Spirit.’ He first field preached at Bristol in 1739 and soon after formed Methodist societies. During the 1740s, John approved of lay preaching for Methodists and he conducted the first Methodist conference. In 1784, he began ordaining ministers for America. The Methodist movement grew, yet he affirmed that Methodists in England should remain Anglican in 1786. John Wesley – founder of Methodism – died on March 2, 1791, and is buried at City Road chapel in London.

Charles Wesley was instrumental in the founding of modern Methodism though his brother John is more famous. Charles is known as a writer of over 6,000 hymns, including “Hark, the Herald Angel Sings” and “Christ the Lord is Risen Today.” As a young minister with his first parish in the frontier of Georgia, he found his evangelical duties very trying. His experiences at Frederica illuminate many of the difficulties for settlers from British cities as they attempted to create a home in the wilderness.

Charles Wesley was born in Epworth, England in 1707 and was the 18 th of 19 children. His father was an Anglican preacher and Charles followed in his footsteps after his education. He attended Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford where he graduated in 1729. Working as a college tutor, he was a founder of the Holy Club at Oxford. In September 1735, however, he was ordained as a deacon and then as a priest in the Anglican Church in September of 1735. Within a month he was on a journey to the first trial of his life as a minister.

Charles Wesley set sail for Georgia on October 21, 1735 with his brother John who was doing missionary work for the Society for the Propogation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. While John was assigned to be the minister at Savannah, Charles served as General Oglethorpe’s secretary of Indian affairs and minister to the soldiers and settlers of Frederica. He arrived on March 9, 1736 and recorded in his journal, “about three in the afternoon, I first set foot on St. Simons island, and immediately my spirit revived. No sooner did I enter upon my ministry, than God gave me, like Saul, another heart…” When Charles arrived at Frederica he found very primitive conditions and he held services in the open and small prayer meetings in the temporary palmetto huts the settlers constructed. Preaching, however, was not his only job at Frederica. Seven days after his arrival he recorded in his journal, “I was wholly spent in writing letters for Mr. Oglethorpe. I would not spend six days more in the same manner for all Georgia.” Wesley was constantly involved in the personal struggles of Frederica’s settlers and quickly earned James Oglethorpe’s disfavor. In his journal, he noted, “At half-hour past seven Mr. Oglethorpe called me out of my hut. I looked up to God, and went. He charged me with mutiny and sedition; with stirring up the people to desert the colony.” At this point in his life, Charles lacked the physical, emotional and mental stamina needed to cope with such a difficult life on the Georgia frontier. While Charles had no love for the conditions in Georgia, many of the Georgia settlers had no great love for the Wesleys. To recent settlers struggling to survive on the harsh frontier, the immediate needs of safety and survival mattered far more than the strict piety espoused by both John and Charles Wesley. On May 12, 1736, Charles left Frederica eventually bound for England. He recorded his feelings in his journal, “I was overjoyed at my deliverance out of this furnace, and not a little ashamed of myself for being so."

Francis Moore and his wife, Mary, departed from Gravesend, England on a voyage to Georgia in company with other settlers of Frederica Town. Beginning October 15, 1735 when their vessel, The Symond , disembarked, through June 1736, Moore kept a journal of his observations. This journal provides a rich source of information on the fledgling colony of Georgia, and the frontier setting of the British military headquarters at Fort Frederica.

At Frederica, the Moores settled at lot #21 North Ward, where in 1741, he reported spending 400 pounds on two houses, one of brick and one of timber. Francis Moore served as First Recorder, keeping important records on the town’s court and other meetings. He carried on correspondence between Frederica and government officials in Savannah and London, for a salary of 20 pounds a year. According to Georgia’s Colonial Records, on May 11, 1737 Moore’s salary of 50 pounds included his acting as storekeeper and clerk to James Oglethorpe from October 1735 to January 1736/7. He served as Oglethorpe’s personal secretary from 1739 to 1743. Disenchanted with petty town squabbles, the Moores returned to England by 1744.

In 1744, Francis Moore printed his Voyage to Georgia Begun in the Year 1735. His book gives insight into the daily life of the people of Frederica Town. To the left is a listing of the a year’s supply of food for each man in the colony provided by the Trustees. Mothers, wives, sisters or children of these men received similar provisions with the exception of meat, which was less. Each man would also receive the following: “A watch-coat, a musket and bayonet, a hatchet, a hammer, an hand-saw, a shod shovel or spade, a broad hoe, a gimlet, a drawing knife, an iron pot, a pair of pot-hooks, a frying pan, and a publick grindstone to each ward or village.” Although Moore’s book promised a sequel featuring an account of Oglethorpe’s 1740 Siege of St. Augustine, and the resulting Spanish invasion in 1742, this second book was never published.