planted Georgia chiefly from prisons." And Hannah More
writes of being in company with him when he was _much above ninety
years_ of age. He was, therefore, born before 1698. And, finally,
the record of his admission into Corpus Christi College, at Oxford,
decides the matter beyond all controversy; and, by certifying his
age to be _sixteen_, proves that he was born in _sixteen hundred and
eighty-eight_. For the _month_ and _day_, I receive the testimony of
William Stephens, Esq., Secretary for the affairs of the Trustees in
Georgia, in the first volume of his Journal. On Thursday, December,
21st, [1738,] he makes this record.

"Another heavy rain of all last night, and this whole day's
continuance; which, whatever impediments it might occasion to our
other affairs, was no hindrance to our celebration of _the General's
birth-day_, as had been always the custom hitherto; and in the very
same manner as we did last year, under the discharge of cannon, &c."
And McCall, who has named _December_ 21st, says, "I am indebted to the
Encyclopedia Perthensis, and to the Journal of a private gentleman in
Georgia, where his birth-day was celebrated, for the date which I have
inserted."[1]

[Footnote 1: _History of Georgia_, Vol. I. p. 321.]

This assignment will tally with the other dates and their attendant
circumstances; allow time, with becoming propriety, for finishing his
education at the University; and show that he was not so precocious a
soldier as has been represented, but that, instead of the _juvenile_
age of _eleven_, he entered the army at the _manly_ age of
_twenty-one_.

_Memorandum_. This attempt to ascertain the exact age of Oglethorpe,
was written in 1837. I have, since then, received the following
letter, dated London, October 2d, 1840.

My Dear Sir.
In compliance with your request, I. have been, this morning,
to the vestry of St. James, Westminster, where I examined
the record of Oglethorpe's baptism, of which the following is
an exact copy in substance and form.

Bapt. | June 1689
2. | James Oglethorpe of Sir Theophilus and
| his lady Elinor, b. 1.

I certify that the above is a true extract from the Register
Book of Baptisms belonging to the Parish of St. James,
Westminster.
J.G. GIFFORD, _Preacher and Assistant_.

Hence it appears that Oglethorpe was born on _the first_ of
June, 1669, and baptized on the _second_. I wa