Digges, Generation 13
Sir Dudley Digges (1583-1639) graduated from Christ Church, Oxford in 1601. He was ambassador to Russia (1618) and Special Ambassador to Holland (1620). He authored "The Worthiness of Warre and Warriors" (1604), "Rights and Privileges of the Subject" (1642), and "The Compleat Ambassador" (1655). He sat in Parliament for Tewkesbury and later for Kent. Russia named Cape Digges for him. He was appointed Master of the Rolls in 1630 under King Charles I. He was a friend of Henry Hudson and, in 1610, helped finance that explorer's last voyage, where Cape Digges and Digges Island were named for him. In 1631 he was appointed Commissioner to consider how the plantation of Virginia "now standeth", and what commodities could be raised in those parts. He erected Chilham Castle, Chilham, Kent, England (completed in 1616). He was knighted by King James at Whitehall on April 29, 1607. He was appointed Commissioner for Virginia Tobacco in 1634. He died March 18, 1639, and the wisest men reckoned his death among the public calamities of those times. His wife was Lady Mary, youngest daughter and co-heir of Sir Thomas Kempe of Olantigh, Kent; whose ancestors included Cardinal John Kempe, Archbishop of Canterbury in 1454, and Thomas Kempe, Bishop of London. Sir Dudley Digges and Lady Mary Kempe had eight sons and three daughters, of whom the fourth son was Edward Digges of Virginia.