Family and Education

b. 5 July 1730, 1st s. of Hon. Edward Digby. educ. Westminister 1739; Magdalen, Oxf. 1747. unm. suc. fa. 2 Oct. 1746 and gd.-fa. as 6th Baron Digby [I] 27 Nov. 1752.1

Offices Held

Groom of the bedchamber to Prince of Wales 1751-3.

Biography

From the age of 14 Edward Digby was a regular member of the Foxes’ yearly shooting-party in Wiltshire, succeeding his uncle Henry Fox as ‘recorder of the chasse’ on 21 Sept. 1753, when Fox described himself as ‘old and fat’ and Digby as ‘young and clever’.2 He had been returned on Fox’s interest for Malmesbury at a by-election in 1751 but ‘declared absolutely for Dorsetshire’3 in July 1753, writing to Newcastle in August:

As I believe I shall, at a meeting of gentlemen appointed to be held next Tuesday at Dorchester for considering choosing of representatives for the county, be named as a candidate as well as Mr. Pitt, Mr. Chaffin and Mr. Sturt [M.P.], I beg the favour of your Grace’s interest in case of opposition which seems to be unavoidable.4

However when, at the meeting, Mr. Trenchard proposed Lord Digby and ‘nobody said a word’,5 he abandoned his candidature. Returned with Fox’s support for Wells in 1754, he died 30 Nov. 1757.

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: R. S. Lea

Notes

• 1. Digby to Newcastle from Coleshill, 27 Nov. 1752, Add. 32730, f. 299.
• 2. Ilchester, Hen. Fox, 54, 61.
• 3. Rich. Rigby to Bedford, 5 July 1753, Bedford mss.
• 4. From Sherborne, 4 Aug. 1753, Add. 32732, f. 414.
• 5. Dodington Diary, 7 Aug. 1753.