Marriage and Family
Edward Digges married Elizabeth Page, daughter of Francis Page (1595-1678) of Bedfont, Middlesex, and sister of Col. John Page of Middle Plantation.
Digges died in 1675. A large tombstone was placed over his grave near his home at Bellfield, with the following inscription:
To the memory of Edward Digges Esq. Sonne of Dudley Digges of Chilham in Kent Kn t & Bar t Master of the Rolls in the rain of K. Charles the First. He departed this life 15th of March 1674 in the LIII d year of his age, one of his Mag ty Councill for this his colony of Virginia. A gentlemen of most commendable parts and ingenuity, the only introducer and promoter of the silk manufacture in this colony. And in everything else a pattern worthy of all Pious Imitation. He had issue 6 sons and 7 daughters by the body of Elizabeth his wife who of her conjugal affection hath dedicated to him this Memorial.Digges' will (dated 28 August 1669, proved 16 June 1675) left legacies "to all my children being four boys and four girls", thus establishing that by 1669, when the will was written, only eight of the thirteen children mentioned in the grave inscription were still living.
Following Bacon's Rebellion, Mrs Digges was referred to in the Report of the Royal Commissioners as one of those who had suffered as a result of family loyalty to the King:
Capt Wm. Diggs sonne to Mr. Edward Diggs, deceased, a Galland, brisk young Gentleman, who in a single dispute betwixt him and Hansford, one of the cheifest champions of the Rebells side, cut off one of Hansfords fingers, and forced him to fly, and maintained the Governors cause against the Rebells, with great constancy till he was forced to fly to Maryland, whose mother suffered considerably in her estate for her sonnes Loyalty.Elizabeth died intestate in 1691. An article published in the William and Mary Quarterly in 1893 recounts the division of her personal estate between her surviving heirs:
On November 24, 1691, Capt. Francis Page, in behalf of his daughter, Elizabeth Page, "as legally representing her deceased mother, Mary, ye daughter of ye said Mrs. Elizabeth Digges, petitioned ye Court for a division of Mrs. Digges' estate", which was ordered. Accordingly on the 10th December, 1691, Joseph Ring, Thomas Barber and Martin Gardiner reported the division, and the inventory was entered in the York records, August 24, 1692. It amounted to L1 102, 18, 10.Mrs Digges' personal property was divided by the Court, in accordance with the law, among her four surviving heirs: three sons (William, Dudley, and Edward) and one granddaughter (Elizabeth Page, daughter of Mary Digges and Francis Page).
The plantation which Digges had purchased from Capt. John West (known as the E. D. plantation) remained in the family until 1787, when it was sold. It was known as "Bellfield" by 1811, when it was advertised for sale as ""Belfield, 1.000 acres in York Co., the only estate where the famous E.D. tobacco was raised, which never failed to bring in England one shilling when other tobacco would not bring three pence."
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Famous quotes containing the words marriage and/or family:
“Every relationship that does not raise us up pulls us down, and vice versa; this is why men usually sink down somewhat when they take wives while women are usually somewhat raised up. Overly spiritual men require marriage every bit as much as they resist it as bitter medicine.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“In the capsule biography by which most of the people knew one another, I was understood to be an Air Force pilot whose family was wealthy and lived in the East, and I even added the detail that I had a broken marriage and drank to get over it.... I sometimes believed what I said and tried to take the cure in the very real sun of Desert D’Or with its cactus, its mountain, and the bright green foliage of its love and its money.”
—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)