Of these, about seven hundred, rendered, by long confinement for debt, strangers and helpless in the country of their birth, and desirous of seeking an asylum in the wilds of America, were by him conducted thither in 1732.
He willingly encountered in their behalf a variety of fatigue and danger, and thus became the founder of the Colony of Georgia; a Colony which afterwards set the noble example of prohibiting the importation of slaves This new establishment he strenuously and successfully defended against a powerful attack of the Spaniards. In the year in which he quitted England to found this settlement, he nobly strove to secure our true national defence by sea and land, --a free navy-- without impressing a constitutional militia. But his social affections were more enlarged than even the term Patriotism can express; he was the friend of the oppressed negro,-- no part of the globe was too remote,-- no interest too unconnected,-- or too much opposed to his own, to prevent the immediate succor of suffering humanity. For such qualities he received, from the ever memorable John, Duke of Argyle, a full testimony, in the British Senate, to his military character, his natural generosity, his contempt of danger, and regard for the Public. A similar encomium is perpetuated in a foreign language;[1] and, by one of our most celebrated Poets, his remembrance is transmitted to posterity in lines justly expressive of the purity, the ardor, and the extent of his benevolence. He lived till the 1st of July, 1785; a venerable instance to what a duration a life of temperance and virtuous labor is capable of being protracted. His widow, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Nathan Wright of Cranham hall, Bart. and only sister and heiress of Sir Samuel Wright, Bart. of the same place, surviving, with regret, but with due submission to Divine Providence, an affectionate husband, after an union of more than forty years, hath inscribed to his memory these faint traces of his excellent character.
"Religion watches o'er his urn, And all the virtues bending mourn; Humanity, with languid eye, Melting for others' misery; Prudence, whose hands a measure hold, And Temperance, with a chain of gold; Fidelity's triumphant vest, And Fortitude in armor drest; Wisdom's grey locks, and Freedom, join The moral train to bless his shrine, And pensive all, around his ashes holy, Their last sad honors pay in order melancholy."[2]