XXXI.
EDWARD DIGGES.
XXXI. President of the Council
and
Governor
Under the Commonwealth of Cromwell.
XXXI. March, 1655, to March 13, 1658.
"Att a Grand Assembly Held at James Citty, March 31, 1655, Ordered
the Governor and Councill be as followeth: Edward Digges, Esqr.,
Governor, Coll. Wm. Clayborne, Secretary, and next in Council, etc."
According to Hening, "this is the second election of
Governor and Council which appears to have been made
since the existence of the Commonwealth in England."
Governor Digges took much interest in the manufacture of
silk in the Colony, it being found "the most profitable
comoditie for the countrey," and during his term an act was
passed for "ten mulberry trees to be planted for every 100
acres of land held in fee-simple, and sufficiently fenced and
tended." Later it was enacted "that what person soever
shall first make one hundred pounds of wound silke in one
yeare within this Colloney, shall in his so doing be paid ffive
thousand pounds of tobacco out of the publique levie."
Although the cultivation of this industry was at a later date
abandoned, it is said that part of the coronation robe of
Charles II. was composed of Virginia silk, sent to him from
the Colony. This particular mark of favor from the King
was in acknowledgment of the firmness which the Virginians
had expressed in the royal cause.
Governor Digges was a younger son of Sir Dudley Digges,
of Chilham, County Kent, England, and was born in 1620.
He died March 15, 1675, and was buried at his seat, "Bellefield,"
about eight miles from Williamsburg, Va. His
descendants took an active part in the affairs of the Colony
for many years.
