Edward Digges

Edward Digges (14 February 1620 – 15 March 1674/75) was an English barrister and colonist who became a premium tobacco planter and official in the Virginia colony. The son of the English politician Dudley Digges represented the colony before the Virginia Company of London and the royal government, as well as served for two decades on the colony's Council of State. Digges served as interim Colonial Governor of Virginia from March 1655 to December 1656, and for longer periods as the colony's receiver general and auditor-general. He is also known for planting mulberry trees and promoting the silk industry in the colony. Early life and education Born in Chilham Castle, Kent, England, and christened in Chilham parish on 29 March 1620, Edward Digges was the fourth son of Sir Dudley Digges (1583–1638) and his wife Mary Kempe (1583–?). Sir Dudley was the Master of the Rolls for King Charles I and an investor in the Virginia Company of London. On 13 June 1621, that company gave Sir Dudley a patent, and on 10 June 1622 he was identified as holding the patent for a particular plantation in Virginia, but this son would not arrive in Virginia for another two decades. Edward Digges received an education appropriate to his class and entered Gray's Inn in 1637 to become a barrister. Career Digges emigrated to the Virginia Colony about 1650 and purchased from Captain John West a 1250-acre plantation in Hampton Parish, York County, Virginia, near Yorktown. Digges also patented land in Surry, New Kent and Gloucester counties. About 1653, Digges laid out Fort Mattapony near Walkerton, King and Queen County, Virginia.