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66 GEOEGIA AND GEORGIANS
except in cases for which special provision was needed the property was
to descend to his male heirs.
At the time of embarkation, on November 17, 1732, there were thirty-
five families enrolled, aggregating 130 individuals. These comprised car
penters, brick-layers, mechanics and farmers. To convey them to the new
world a galley of some 200 tons burden, named the Anne, Captain Thomas
in command, was provided by the trustees. It was comfortably fitted
out for the voyage, containing in addition to food supplies such agricul
tural implements, household utensils, tools, weapons, munitions and
stores as were needed for the colonists on arrival. To show that nothing
was overlooked necessary to the comfort of the voyagers we are told that
the vessel's cargo included "ten tons of Alderman Parson's best beer."
Among the passengers on board were: Dr. Henry Herbert, a clergyman
of the established church, Mr. Amatis, an Italian from Piedmont, en
gaged to instruct the colonists in breeding silk-worms and in the art of
winding silk; and, last but not least, this vessel, freighted with the desti
nies of a new province, carried its illustrious founder, James Edward
Oglethorpe.
It was at his own solicitation that Oglethorpe was chosen to accom
pany the emigrants to Georgia; but the trustees were a unit in regarding
him as the best man in all England to superintend the work of Georgia's
establishment. Not only was he the originator of this project to found
an asylum in the new world for indigent debtors, but from first to last
he was its most enthusiastic, zealous, and unremitting advocate. More
over, as chairman of the committee on prisons, he had achieved a world
wide reputation in the English Parliament. He had been largely instru
mental in purifying the prisons of England and was perhaps the best
known humanitarian and philanthropist of his day. But what qualified
him, in a peculiar sense, to organize a colony founded upon a military
basis was his ripe experience and rare genius as a soldier. When we
remember that in a few years he was to become the official head of the
English army, we can form some estimate of his qualifications at this
time as a military commander. He was in the prime of life, tall and
erect, possessed of a vigorous constitution, and one of the handsomest
men to be encountered in a tour of rural England. Though often in
London, it was not as a metropolitan but as a country squire that he
loved to be known; nor did any man of his time better illustrate this title
in its softer and finer phases. Not too austere, he was characterized as
the beau ideal of an English gentleman; and blest with means ample
for the gratification of every wish he was ready to sacrifice ease and ele
gance and to share with penury a lot of toil, of privation, and of peril.
In the language of an eloquent biographer: '' Possessing a liberal educa
tion, a fearless soul, a determined will, a tireless energy, a practical
knowledge of military affairs and of the management of expeditions,
with-an experience of men and climes and matters, which only years of
careful observation and intelligent travel and thoughtful study could
supply, he was, beyond all dispute, the man of his age and people best
qualified to inaugurate and conduct to a successful issue an enterprise
so entirely in unison with his own philanthropic sentiments and so
important to the interests of both England and America.'' *
* Charles C. Jones, Jr., in "History of Georgia," Vol. I, p. 115.