Sir Dudley Digges (19 May 1583 – 18 March 1639) was an English diplomat and politician who sat in the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...
between 1610 and 1629. Digges was also a "Virginia adventurer," an investor who ventured his capital in the
Virginia Company of London
The London Company, officially known as the Virginia Company of London, was a division of the Virginia Company with responsibility for colonizing the east coast of North America between latitudes 34° and 41° N.
History Origins
The territor ...
; his son Edward Digges would go on to be Governor of Virginia. Dudley Digges was responsible for the rebuilding of
Chilham Castle
Chilham Castle is a Jacobean manor house and keep in the village of Chilham, between Ashford and Canterbury in the county of Kent, England. The keep is of Norman origin and dates to 1174; the manor house was completed in 1616 for Sir Dudley Di ...
, completed in around 1616.
Early life
Digges was the son of the mathematician
Thomas Digges
Thomas Digges (; c. 1546 – 24 August 1595) was an English mathematician and astronomer. He was the first to expound the Copernican system in English but discarded the notion of a fixed shell of immoveable stars to postulate infinitely many s ...
of Digges Court,
Barham, Kent
Barham is a village and civil parish in the City of Canterbury district of Kent, England. Barham village is approximately south-east from Canterbury and north from Folkestone.
History
The name Barham was spelt ''Bioraham'' in 799, from ''B ...
, and Anne St Leger (d. 1636), the daughter of
Warham St Leger
Sir Warham St Leger PC (Ire) ( – 1597) was an English soldier, administrator, and politician, who sat in the Irish House of Commons in the Parliament of 1585–1586.
Birth and origins
Warham was probably born in 1525 in England, the second so ...
. Dudley matriculated at
University College, Oxford
University College (in full The College of the Great Hall of the University of Oxford, colloquially referred to as "Univ") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It has a claim to being the oldest college of the univer ...
on 18 July 1600, when aged 17, and was awarded BA on 1 July 1601.
Career in politics
Digges was knighted by
James I James I may refer to:
People
*James I of Aragon (1208–1276)
*James I of Sicily or James II of Aragon (1267–1327)
*James I, Count of La Marche (1319–1362), Count of Ponthieu
*James I, Count of Urgell (1321–1347)
*James I of Cyprus (1334–13 ...
at
Whitehall
Whitehall is a road and area in the City of Westminster, Central London. The road forms the first part of the A roads in Zone 3 of the Great Britain numbering scheme, A3212 road from Trafalgar Square to Chelsea, London, Chelsea. It is the main ...
on 29 April 1607.
['Alumni Oxonienses, 1500–1714: Dabbe-Dirkin', Alumni Oxonienses 1500–1714: Abannan-Kyte (1891), pp. 366-405. Date accessed: 12 December 2011]
/ref> In 1610, he was elected Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
for the newly enfranchised constituency of Tewkesbury
Tewkesbury ( ) is a medieval market town and civil parish in the north of Gloucestershire, England. The town has significant history in the Wars of the Roses and grew since the building of Tewkesbury Abbey. It stands at the confluence of the Riv ...
.[Browne Willis ''Notitia parliamentaria, or, An history of the counties, cities, and boroughs in England and Wales: ... The whole extracted from mss. and printed evidences'' 1750 pp. 176-228]
/ref>
He was a friend of Henry Hudson
Henry Hudson ( 1565 – disappeared 23 June 1611) was an English sea explorer and navigator during the early 17th century, best known for his explorations of present-day Canada and parts of the northeastern United States.
In 1607 and 160 ...
and, in 1610, he was one of those who fitted out Hudson for his last voyage. As a result, Digges' name was given to Digges Islands, at the mouth of Hudson Bay
Hudson Bay ( crj, text=ᐐᓂᐯᒄ, translit=Wînipekw; crl, text=ᐐᓂᐹᒄ, translit=Wînipâkw; iu, text=ᑲᖏᖅᓱᐊᓗᒃ ᐃᓗᐊ, translit=Kangiqsualuk ilua or iu, text=ᑕᓯᐅᔭᕐᔪᐊᖅ, translit=Tasiujarjuaq; french: b ...
in Canada, and to Cape Digges, at the easternmost extremity of these islands. In 1614, Digges was re-elected MP for Tewkesbury to the Addled Parliament
The Parliament of 1614 was the second Parliament of England of the reign of James VI and I, which sat between 5 April and 7 June 1614. Lasting only two months and two days, it saw no bills pass and was not even regarded as a Parliament by its c ...
. He backed the explorations of William Baffin
William Baffin ( – 23 January 1622) was an English navigator, explorer and cartographer. He is primarily known for his attempt to find a Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific, during the course of which he was the first Euro ...
in 1615 and 1616, with several of the same group of "adventurers". In 1616 he completed his mansion of Chilham Castle
Chilham Castle is a Jacobean manor house and keep in the village of Chilham, between Ashford and Canterbury in the county of Kent, England. The keep is of Norman origin and dates to 1174; the manor house was completed in 1616 for Sir Dudley Di ...
, Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
.
Digges became a gentleman of the privy chamber in 1618.[ He was named ]ambassador
An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or sov ...
to Muscovy Muscovy is an alternative name for the Grand Duchy of Moscow (1263–1547) and the Tsardom of Russia (1547–1721). It may also refer to:
*Muscovy Company, an English trading company chartered in 1555
* Muscovy duck (''Cairina moschata'') and Domes ...
in 1618–1619 and Special Ambassador to Holland
Holland is a geographical regionG. Geerts & H. Heestermans, 1981, ''Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal. Deel I'', Van Dale Lexicografie, Utrecht, p 1105 and former province on the western coast of the Netherlands. From the 10th to the 16th c ...
in 1620. He was re-elected MP for Tewkesbury in 1621, 1624, 1625, and 1626.[ In the latter parliament, he was active in the ]impeachment
Impeachment is the process by which a legislative body or other legally constituted tribunal initiates charges against a public official for misconduct. It may be understood as a unique process involving both political and legal elements.
In ...
of the Duke of Buckingham
Duke of Buckingham held with Duke of Chandos, referring to Buckingham, is a title that has been created several times in the peerages of England, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom. There have also been earls and marquesses of Buckingham.
...
during the crisis of 1626 that followed the aborted expedition to Cádiz
Cádiz (, , ) is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the Province of Cádiz, one of eight that make up the autonomous community of Andalusia.
Cádiz, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Western Europe, ...
,["The laws of England have taught us that kings cannot command ill or unlawful things. And whatsoever ill events succeed, the executioners of such designs must answer for them". — Sir Dudley Digges, 1626, quoted by Sommerville.] when Digges and Archbishop Abbot
George Abbot (29 October 15624 August 1633) was an English divine who was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1611 to 1633. He also served as the fourth Chancellor of the University of Dublin, from 1612 to 1633.
''Chambers Biographical Dictionary' ...
co-operated to co-ordinate the attacks in the Houses of Lords and Commons. Digges was for a time imprisoned in the Fleet Prison by order of the King, but was released on apologizing to the King, an act that John Eliot was unwilling to perform. In 1628, Digges was elected MP for Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
and sat until 1629 when King Charles decided to rule without parliament for eleven years.
In 1631, Digges became a bencher of Gray's Inn
The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and Wale ...
and was master in chancery
The Court of Chancery was a court of equity in England and Wales that followed a set of loose rules to avoid a slow pace of change and possible harshness (or "inequity") of the common law. The Chancery had jurisdiction over all matters of equ ...
from 1631 to 1637.[
That same year (1631), he was one of the commission appointed by the ]Privy Council
A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...
"to consider how the plantation of Virginia now standeth, and to consider what commodity may be raised in those parts," and in 1634, he was appointed Commissioner for Virginia Tobacco. In 1638, he was appointed Master of the Rolls
The Keeper or Master of the Rolls and Records of the Chancery of England, known as the Master of the Rolls, is the President of the Court of Appeal (England and Wales)#Civil Division, Civil Division of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales a ...
until his death in 1639.[
]
Published work
Digges published several political and economic works, ''The Worthiness of Warre and Warriors'' (1604), ''The Defence of Trade'' (1615), ''Rights and Privileges of the Subject'' (1642), and, posthumously, ''The Compleat Ambassador: or Two Treaties of the Intended Marriage of Qu. Elizabeth of Glorious Memory'' (1655), a notable study of the two French marriage embassies, of Anjou and of Alençon, which revealed in unprecedented fashion the official despatches and correspondence and is a landmark in English historiography
Historiography is the study of the methods of historians in developing history as an academic discipline, and by extension is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiography of a specific topic covers how historians ha ...
.
Digges left a fund in his will that provided, for some 200 years after his death, an annuity of £20 as prize money for races between the men and women of the parish of Chilham
Chilham is a mostly agricultural village and parish in the English county of Kent with a clustered settlement, Chilham village centre, in the northeast, and a smaller linear settlement, Shottenden. Well-preserved roads and mostly residential liste ...
, Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
.
Family
Digges married Mary Kempe, daughter and co-heir of Sir Thomas Kempe of Olantigh
Olantigh is an English house north of Wye in the civil parish of Wye with Hinxhill.
The garden terraces and towered stable block were Grade II listed in 1989 and extend to , beside the Great Stour river. Garden features include a wide variety ...
, Kent. They had eight sons and three daughters. Digges's son Edward
Edward is an English given name. It is derived from the Anglo-Saxon name ''Ēadweard'', composed of the elements '' ēad'' "wealth, fortune; prosperous" and '' weard'' "guardian, protector”.
History
The name Edward was very popular in Anglo-Sa ...
was among the "planters," who emigrated in the 1640s and became Governor of Virginia
The governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia serves as the head of government of Virginia for a four-year term. The incumbent, Glenn Youngkin, was sworn in on January 15, 2022.
Oath of office
On inauguration day, the Governor-elect takes th ...
. Another son, Dudley (c. 1612–1643) published a treatise on the ''Illegality of Subjects taking up Arms against their Sovereigns'' (1643).
Sir Dudley Digges and Lady Mary Kemp had 11 children, 8 boys and 3 girls, of who 8 survived to adulthood:
* Thomas Digges (b. 1603)
* Ann Digges (b. 1616)
* Elizabeth Digges (b. 1617)
* Francis Digges (b. 1619)
* Edward Digges
Edward Digges (14 February 1620 – 15 March 1674/75) was an English barrister and colonist who served as List of colonial governors of Virginia, Colonial Governor of Virginia from March 1655 to December 1656. He was the son of the English polit ...
(1621–1675), a barrister
A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...
and colonist who served as Colonial Governor of Virginia
The governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia serves as the head of government of Virginia for a four-year term. The incumbent, Glenn Youngkin, was sworn in on January 15, 2022.
Oath of office
On inauguration day, the Governor-elect takes th ...
from March 1655 to December 1656. Edward Digges' grandson Dudley Digges
Sir Dudley Digges (19 May 1583 – 18 March 1639) was an English diplomat and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1610 and 1629. Digges was also a "Virginia adventurer," an investor who ventured his capital in the Virginia ...
(c. 1728 – 1790), served in the House of Burgesses from 1752 until the Revolutionary War. Dudley Digges was a member of the Committee of Safety established by the Virginia Conventions to act in the absence of the royal governor, he would become a lieutenant governor of Virginia and was one of the members of the Virginia Assembly captured by the British in a Charlottesville raid in 1781.
* Leonard Digges (b. 1622)
* Herbert Digges (b. 1628)
* Richard Digges (b. 1635)
See also
* Diggs baronets
Footnotes
References
"William Baffin, 1615–16"
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20070311113513/http://history.wisc.edu/sommerville/123/123%20292%201626.htm J.P. Sommerville, "The crisis of 1626"br>National Portrait Gallery, London:
Sir Dudley Digges, sitter in three portraits (early nineteenth-century engraving and mezzotints after a painting)
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Digges
1580s births
1639 deaths
Ambassadors of England to Russia
Masters of the Rolls
16th-century English diplomats
17th-century English diplomats
English MPs 1604–1611
English MPs 1614
English MPs 1621–1622
English MPs 1624–1625
English MPs 1625
English MPs 1626
English MPs 1628–1629
Knights Bachelor