Edward Digges

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Edward Digges (14 February 1620 – 15 March 1674/75) was an English lawyer and Virginia planter who became a leading colonial official. He served on the Virginia Governor’s Council for two decades and was interim Colonial Governor from March 1655 to December 1656. He also acted as the colony’s receiver general and auditor-general, and later as the colony’s agent in England.

Born at Chilham Castle in Kent, England, Digges was the son of Sir Dudley Digges, a noted English politician and Master of the Rolls. He trained as a barrister at Gray’s Inn and emigrated to Virginia about 1650. He bought a large plantation in York County, near what would become Yorktown, and acquired additional lands in Surry, New Kent, and Gloucester counties. He laid out Fort Mattapony near Walkerton in King and Queen County.

Digges found more success with premium tobacco than with silk. He grew a high-quality sweet tobacco that sold for a good price in London, exporting it in casks marked “E.D.” He also tried to revive silk production in Virginia. He planted mulberry trees and brought two Armenians to help with silkworm cultivation. He wrote a pamphlet, The Reformed Virginia Silkworm, arguing that native silkworms could thrive outdoors on Virginia mulberry trees and that Native Americans could tend the worms. He sent silk to the Royal Society to share his findings and was awarded £100 for his efforts. However, the Virginia Assembly repealed the mulberry-tree act in 1656, and the silk project ultimately failed. Mulberry trees from his site remained on his estate for generations.

Digges was recognized for his loyalty to the colony by being granted a seat on the Governor’s Council in 1654. During the Cromwellian period, when Governor Richard Bennett was away in England, the Assembly chose Digges to serve as acting governor. His term ran from 30 March 1655 to December 1656, after which he sailed back to England on family business. For his service as governor, he was paid 25,000 pounds of tobacco, drawn from duties on ships and marriage licenses. He later served as the colony’s agent to England, meeting with merchants and Cromwell to defend Virginia’s rights and promote tobacco trade.

Digges married Elizabeth Page, daughter of Francis Page. They had six sons and seven daughters. Their children included William Digges, Dudley Digges, and Edward Digges Jr. Elizabeth survived Digges by more than a decade. Digges died at his Bellfield plantation in York County in March 1674/75, and a large gravestone marks his grave near the home. His will, dated 28 August 1669, left legacies to his children. The family plantation, originally known as the E. D. plantation, remained in the Digges family until 1787 and became known as Belfield. It later came under federal control as part of the Naval Weapons Station Yorktown.

Edward Digges is remembered as a promoter of silk in Virginia and as a capable, influential leader in the colony during a turbulent era.