Dudley Digges | |
|---|---|
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| Member of Parliament forTewkesbury | |
| Member of Parliament forKent | |
| In office 1610–1626 | |
| Preceded by | Constituency established |
| Succeeded by | Sir Baptist Hicks Sir Thomas Colepeper |
| In office 1628–1629 | |
| Preceded by | Sir Edward Hales Sir Edward Scot |
| Succeeded by | Personal Rule |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1583-05-19)19 May 1583 |
| Died | 18 March 1639(1639-03-18) (aged 55) |
| Spouse | Mary Kempe |
| Children | Edward Digges |
| Parent(s) | Thomas Digges Anne St Leger |
Sir Dudley Digges (b. May 19, 1583 –d. March 18, 1639) was an English diplomat and politician who representedTewkesbury andKent in theHouse of Commons of England between 1610 and 1629. Digges was also a "Virginia adventurer," an investor who ventured his capital in theVirginia Company of London; his son Edward Digges would go on to be Governor of Virginia. Dudley Digges was responsible for the rebuilding ofChilham Castle, completed in around 1616.[1]
Digges was the son of the mathematicianThomas Digges of Digges Court,Barham, Kent, and Anne St Leger (d. 1636), the daughter ofWarham St Leger.[2] Dudley matriculated atUniversity College, Oxford on 18 July 1600, when aged 17, and was awarded BA on 1 July 1601.
Digges was knighted byJames I atWhitehall on 29 April 1607.[3] In 1610, he was electedMember of Parliament for the newly enfranchised constituency ofTewkesbury.[4]
He was a friend ofHenry Hudson and, in 1610, he was one of those who fitted out Hudson for his last voyage. As a result, Digges' name was given toDigges Islands, at the mouth ofHudson Bay in Canada, and to Cape Digges, at the easternmost extremity of these islands. In 1614, Digges was re-elected MP for Tewkesbury to theAddled Parliament.[5] He backed the explorations ofWilliam Baffin in 1615 and 1616, with several of the same group of "adventurers". In 1616 he completed his mansion ofChilham Castle,Kent[citation needed], on land inherited from his father-in-law.[6]
Digges became a gentleman of the privy chamber in 1618.[3] He was namedambassador toMuscovy in 1618–1619 and Special Ambassador toHolland in 1620. He was re-elected MP for Tewkesbury in 1621, 1624, 1625, and 1626.[4] In the latter parliament, he was active in theimpeachment of theDuke of Buckingham during the crisis of 1626 that followed the aborted expedition toCádiz,[7] when Digges andArchbishop Abbot co-operated to co-ordinate the attacks in the Houses of Lords and Commons. Digges was for a time imprisoned in theFleet Prison by order of the King, but was released on apologizing to the King, an act thatJohn Eliot was unwilling to perform. In 1628, Digges was elected MP forKent and sat until 1629 when King Charles decided to rule without parliament for eleven years.[citation needed]
In 1631, Digges became a bencher ofGray's Inn and wasmaster in chancery from 1631 to 1637.[3]
That same year (1631), he was one of the commission appointed by thePrivy Council "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 appointedMaster of the Rolls until his death in 1639.[3]
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 Englishhistoriography.
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 ofChilham,Kent.
Digges married Mary Kempe, daughter and co-heir of Sir Thomas Kempe ofOlantigh, Kent. They had eight sons and three daughters. Digges's sonEdward was among the "planters," who emigrated in the 1640s and becameGovernor of Virginia. Another son, Dudley (c. 1612–1643) published a treatise on theIllegality 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:
| Parliament of England | ||
|---|---|---|
| New constituency | Member of Parliament forTewkesbury 1610–1626 With:Edward Ferrers 1610–1611 Sir John Ratcliffe 1614 Giles Brydges 1621–1622 Sir Baptist Hicks 1624–1626 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forKent 1628–1629 With:Thomas Finch | Parliament suspended until 1640 |
