James Oglethorpe is famous for conducting a…

James Oglethorpe is famous for conducting a parliamentary investigation into the conditions of London prisons, and he has exercised a leading role in the movement to found a new American colony with an eye towards assisting some of those who had been imprisoned for debt.

He had confided to his friend John Lord Viscount Percival (who will be known as the first earl of Egmont after that title is conferred on him in 1733) that he intends to help released debtors begin a new life in America.

In fact, Oglethorpe has received a grant of five thousand pounds to carry out his plan.

Dr. Thomas Bray had in 1729 chosen trustees to administer his estate.

In addition to Oglethorpe, the trustees, called the Associates of Dr. Bray, include several future members of the Georgia Trust, notably Percival, James Vernon, Stephen Hales and Thomas Coram.

Coram is better known as the founder of the Foundling Hospital in London.

Oglethorpe and his friends had decided to add the Bray legacy to the funds in hand for the purpose of establishing a new colony between the Savannah and Altamaha rivers, in territory claimed by both the province of South Carolina and the Spanish colony of Florida.

The associates had on September 17, 1730, presented a petition for a charter to the Privy Council, Parliament's executive body, headed by the chancellor of the exchequer, Robert Walpole.

The petition was routinely passed on to the notoriously inefficient Board of Trade, which had dawdled for a year without acting.

Walpole, the prime minister, is less than eager to challenge the Spanish, who have a prior claim to the region requested by the petitioners.

Walpole needs the support of the influential members of Parliament who support the charter, however, and he had managed to bring the charter before the Privy Council.

After going through several revisions, the notion of helping debtors had given way to a more pragmatic plan to send over "the deserving poor" who would protect South Carolina while producing such goods as wine and silk for England.

England's King George II, for whom the colony is named, on April 21, 1732, signs a charter establishing the colony and creating its governing board.

His action culminates a lengthy process.

The charter creates a corporate body called a Trust and provides for an unspecified number of Trustees who will govern the colony from England.

Seventy-one men will serve as Trustees during the twenty-year life of the Trust.

Trustees are forbidden by the charter from holding office or land in Georgia, nor are they paid.

Their motives for serving are presumably humanitarian, and their motto is Non sibi sed aliis ("Not for self, but for others").

The charter provides that the body of Trustees elect fifteen members to serve as an executive committee called the Common Council, and specifies a quorum of eight to transact business.

As time goes on, the council frequently lacks a quorum; those present then assume the status of the whole body of Trustees, a pragmatic solution not envisioned by the framers of the charter.

Historian John McCain has counted two hundred and fifteen meetings of the Common Council and five hundred and twelve meetings of the corporation.

Twelve Trustees had attended the first meeting on July 20, 1732, at the Georgia office in the Old Palace Yard, conveniently close to Westminster.

Committees were named to solicit contributions and interview applicants to the new colony.

Seven Trustees on November 17, 1732, bid farewell to Oglethorpe and the first settlers as they leave from Gravesend aboard the Anne.