William Digby, 5th Baron Digby (20 February 1661 – 27 November 1752) was a British peer and

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 o ...

Life

Digby was a younger son of

Kildare Digby, 2nd Baron Digby Kildare Digby, 2nd Baron Digby (c. 1627 – 11 July 1661), was an Irish nobleman. Kildare was a minor when he succeeded his father, Robert Digby, 1st Baron Digby, in 1642. Upon the English Restoration, he sat in the Irish House of Lords in the Par ...

, and Mary Gardiner. He matriculated at Magdalen College, Oxford on 16 May 1679, and received a BA in 1681. In 1686 he succeeded his elder brother as fifth Baron Digby. This was an

Irish peerage The Peerage of Ireland consists of those titles of nobility created by the English monarchs in their capacity as Lord or King of Ireland, or later by monarchs of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It is one of the five divis ...

and did not entitle him to a seat in the English House of Lords. He was instead elected to 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. T ...

for

Warwick Warwick ( ) is a market town, civil parish and the county town of Warwickshire in the Warwick District in England, adjacent to the River Avon. It is south of Coventry, and south-east of Birmingham. It is adjoined with Leamington Spa and Whi ...

in 1689, a constituency he continued to represent until 1698. In September 1698, he inherited the estate of

Sherborne Castle Sherborne Castle is a 16th-century Tudor mansion southeast of Sherborne in Dorset, England, within the parish of Castleton. It stands in a park which formed a small part of the Digby estate. Old castle Sherborne Old Castle () is the ruin ...

from his third cousin once removed,

John Digby, 3rd Earl of Bristol John Digby, 3rd Earl of Bristol (1634 – 18 September 1698) was an English landowner and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1675 to 1677 when he inherited the peerage as Earl of Bristol. He was styled Lord Digby from 1653 to 16 ...

. In 1708, Digby was awarded a DCL from Oxford. He died in November 1752, aged 91, and was succeeded in the barony by his grandson Edward Digby, his son the Hon. Edward Digby having predeceased him.

Family

Lord Digby married Lady Jane Noel (c. 1664 – 10 September 1733), daughter of

Edward Noel, 1st Earl of Gainsborough Edward Noel, 1st Earl of Gainsborough, 4th Viscount Campden (1641 – January 1689) was a British peer, styled Hon. Edward Noel from 1660 to 1681. Origins Edward Noel was born in 1641, the son and heir of Baptist Noel, 3rd Viscount Campden. Car ...

, in 1686. They had four sons and eight daughters: *Hon. John Digby (c. 1687 – 18 March 1746), matriculated at Magdalen College, Oxford on 10 September 1703 and received his MA on 8 May 1707. On 11 April 1715, his father petitioned the House of Lords for a private bill to disinherit John, who had become insane in 1711 while abroad and was considered incurable. *Hon. Robert Digby (c. 1692 – 19 August 1726) *Hon. Edward Digby (c. 1693 – 1746), married and had issue *Hon. Wriothesley Digby (d. 12 May 1767) He matriculated at Magdalen College on 9 March 1713 or 1714 and received a BA in 1716. He obtained a BCL from All Souls College, Oxford in 1721, was admitted a barrister of the

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn ...

in 1725, and awarded a DCL in 1726. He married Mary Cotes of

Woodcote Woodcote is a village and civil parish in South Oxfordshire, about southeast of Wallingford and about northwest of Reading, Berkshire. It is in the Chiltern Hills, and the highest part of the village is above sea level. Woodcote lies betwe ...

and had issue. *Hon. Mary Digby (c. 1689 – 31 March 1729) *Hon. Elizabeth Digby (d. 1730), married

Sir John Dolben, 2nd Baronet ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as ...

and was the mother of

Sir William Dolben, 3rd Baronet Sir William Dolben, 3rd Baronet (1727–1814) was a British Tory MP and a zealous campaigner for the abolition of slavery. He was born in Finedon, Northamptonshire, the only surviving son of Sir John Dolben, 2nd Baronet and his wife Elizabeth D ...

, the noted campaigner against the

slave trade Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

*Hon. Rachel Digby, died young *Hon. Jane Digby, died young *Hon. Juliana Digby, married

Herbert Mackworth Herbert Mackworth (7 September 1687 – 20 August 1765) was a Welsh landowner, coal owner and Tory politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1739 to 1765. Early life Mackworth was the son of Sir Humphrey Mackworth of Gnoll, Glamorganshir ...

*Hon. Catharine Digby (c. 1702 – 13 April 1745) *Hon. Frances Digby (died 19 September 1788), married James Cotes of Woodcote *Hon. Jane Digby (c. 1706 – 1 October 1738)

Bibliography

*Erskine-Hill, Howard (1975) Christian Nobleman': William, fifth Baron Digby of Geashill (1662–1752)'' in: ''The Social Milieu of Alexander Pope''

References

1661 births 1752 deaths Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford English MPs 1690–1695 English MPs 1695–1698

William William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

Younger sons of barons {{Ireland-baron-stub