Edward Digges - Legacy

Legacy

Edward Digges was more successful with tobacco than with silk. He became known for growing "E.D." tobacco, a sweet-scented variety which brought an unusually high price in London.

Digges served as Colonial Governor of Virginia from 30 March 1655 to December 1656, for which he received a salary of 25,000 pounds of tobacco, with the duties levied on vessels, and marriage license fees. In December 1656, The House of Burgesses selected Samuel Mathews as governor to replace Edward Digges, and Digges became the colonial agent to England. In this position, Digges was to go to England and meet with English merchants about the price of tobacco and to secure the rights of the colony. Leaving in March 1657, he took a letter from the House of Burgesses to Oliver Cromwell, who had been ruling England since 1653, following the English Civil War, to settle the long pending controversy between the Colony and Lord Baltimore.