James Edward Oglethorpe, founder of the colony of Georgia, was born in London on 22 December 1696. He was educated at Eton and Oxford before serving under Prince Eugene of Savoy in the Austro-Turkish War. While a member of Parliament, Oglethorpe studied the plight of British debtors, leading him to propose a sanctuary for them in the New World. In 1732 Oglethorpe and nineteen others received a charter from George II to establish a colony for those recently released from debtors' prison.