Dudley Digges

Dudley Digges (1728-June 3, 1790) was a Virginia attorney, planter, military officer and politician who served in the House of Burgesses (1752-1776) and all the Virginia Revolutionary conventions representing York County. Possibly the most famous of three related men of the same name who served in the Virginia legislature during the 18th century, this man was the third son of Yorktown merchant Cole Digges who served in both houses of the Virginia legislature. Early and family life The third son born to the former Elizabeth Foliott Power and her husband Cole Digges, he was born in late 1728 or early 1729 at Yorktown, in a house his father had built after purchasing the no. 42 lot in 1713, and which remained in the Digges family until 1784, when this man sold it to David Jameson. His great-grandfather Edward Digges had established the E.D. plantation (later renamed Bellfield) in York County, where his father was born. He had at least two elder sisters who married into the prominent Harrison family, and elder brothers Edward Digges (who as first born son inherited the Belfield plantation and began representing York County in the House of Burgesses in 1736 but moved to Stafford County) and William Digges (who represented nearby Warwick County as had their father before his elevation to the Council of State). This Digges received a private education appropriate to his class, including studies at the College of William and Mary.