EDWARD DIGGES.
Edward Digges, a younger son of Sir Dudley Digges, of Chilham,
County Kent, England, Knight and Baronet, and Master of the Rolls in
the reign of Charles the First, was born in 1620. He was appointed
a member of the Council November 22, 1654, and was elected by the
Assembly Governor of Virginia March 30, 1655, to succeed Governor
Bennet, and served until March 13, 1658, when he was sent to England
as one of the agents of the colony. He married Elizabeth Bray,
and died March 15, 1675. In the epitaph upon his tomb at the family
seat, "Bellefield," distant eight miles from Williamsburg, he is
described as "a gentleman of most considerable parts and ingenuity,
and the only promoter of the silk manufacture in this colonie, and in
everything else a pattern worthy of all pious imitation." He left six
sons and seven daughters, whose blood now intermingles in the best
esteemed families of the State. Several of his sons were prominent in
the affairs of the colony, one of them, Dudley, being long a member
of the Council, as was also his grandson, Cole Digges.
