Colonel William Digges (c. 1651—24 July 1697) was a prominent planter, soldier and politician in the Colony of Virginia and Province of Maryland.
The eldest son of Edward Digges (1620-1674/5), who sat on the Virginia Governor's Council for two decades but died shortly before Bacon's Rebellion, Digges fled to Maryland where he married Lord Calvert's stepdaughter and served on the Maryland Proprietary Council until losing his office in 1689 during the Protestant Revolution, when a Puritan revolt upset the Calvert Proprietorship. His eldest son Edward sold his primary Virginia plantation to his uncle (this man's younger brother) Dudley Digges. It is now within Naval Station Yorktown.
His former Maryland estate, Warburton Manor, is now within Fort Washington Park. Two additional related men with the same name served in the Virginia General Assembly, both descended from this man's uncle and his grandson Cole Digges (burgess): William Digges (burgess) and his nephew and son-in-law William Digges Jr. both represented now-defunct Warwick County, Virginia (now incorporated into Newport News, Virginia).
Contents
Early life
William Digges was born in Virginia in around 1651, the eldest son of Edward Digges (1620-1674/5), an English barrister and colonist who served for two decades on the Virginia Governor's Council, as well as had been the Colonial Governor of Virginia from March 1655 to December 1656. Edward Digges produced premium tobacco branded as "E.D.", as well as invested heavily in planting mulberry trees and promoting the silk industry in the colony. Edward Digges died in 1675, shortly before Bacon's Rebellion. As eldest son, William inherited the "E.D. Plantation", later known as Bellfield.