Family and Education

b. 30 Apr. 1654, 2nd but 1st surv. s. of Kildare, 2nd Baron Digby [I], by Mary, da. of Robert Gardiner of London; bro. of Simon Digby and William Digby. educ. privately; Magdalen Coll. Oxf. 1670, MA 1676; travelled abroad 1673-6. unm. suc. fa. 11 July 1661.

Offices Held

Commr. for assessment, Warws. 1677-d.

Biography

Lord Digby’s ancestors first sat for Leicestershire in 1373. The Warwickshire branch was founded in 1495 and represented that county under the Tudors. Digby’s father was too young to take part in the Civil War, and died soon after the Restoration, leaving him the Coleshill estate, worth £1,500 p.a., and lands in Ireland which brought in £2,000 more, though encumbered with annuities. Digby’s mother, although still a young woman, did not remarry, but devoted herself to the upbringing of her children. Her sons’ education was confided to her chaplain, William Rawlins, described (theologically) as ‘a very primitive man’. Digby was returned for Warwick, no doubt with the support of Lord Brooke (Fulke Greville), at the first election after his return from his travels, and three days after the adjournment of the 1677 session. Shaftesbury marked him ‘doubly worthy’, but he never took his seat. He died during the recess on 29 Dec. and was buried at Coleshill.

VCH Warws. iv. 51; CSP Ire. 1660-2, p. 381; Letters of 2nd Earl of Chesterfield, 281; J. Kettlewell, Works, i. 31.

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: A. M. Mimardière

Notes