The first voyage of James Edward Oglethorpe and his 114 passengers, which left Gravesend, England, on November 17, 1732, failed to deliver the new settlers directly to the new colony of Georgia. Fearful of charting unknown waters south of Charleston, South Carolina, the captain put the passengers ashore at Beaufort, South Carolina, in February 1733. The passengers proceeded on foot and in small boats to Yamacraw Bluff, the site selected for a town. Oglethorpe drew the famous sketch of the town, with its squares and wide streets. But the little-known story of the sketches deserves to be told.
Before Oglethorpe became one of the “founders” of Georgia, along with some 22 trustees, his decision to take on the position was greatly influenced by an artist friend who, unable to pay his bills, had ended up in prison. When Oglethorpe visited the artist, he discovered that his friend’s cellmate was ill with typhoid fever. Ultimately, the artist became sick and died, but only after he gave Oglethorpe his sketchbooks of architectural designs. Afterward, the outraged Oglethorpe adopted the cause that debtors should not be incarcerated and wrote pamphlets against it.
Oglethorpe’s artist friend influenced the precise architectural design exhibited below.
Source: Colonial Records of Georgia by Allen D. Candler, 22 volumes.
The first wills, estates, marriages, families, and other genealogy records and files of Chatham County are online at georgiapioneers.com This is where to initate your family tree of the first settlers to Georgia.
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