Dudley Digges

Sir Dudley Digges (19 May 1583 – 18 March 1639) was an English diplomat and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1610 and 1629. Digges was also a "Virginia adventurer," an investor who ventured his capital in the Virginia Company of London; his son Edward Digges would go on to be Governor of Virginia. Dudley Digges was responsible for the rebuilding of Chilham Castle, completed in around 1616. Early life Digges was the son of the mathematician Thomas Digges of Digges Court, Barham, Kent, and Anne St Leger (d. 1636), the daughter of Warham St Leger. Dudley matriculated at University College, Oxford on 18 July 1600, when aged 17, and was awarded BA on 1 July 1601. Career in politics Digges was knighted by James I at Whitehall on 29 April 1607. In 1610, he was elected Member of Parliament for the newly enfranchised constituency of Tewkesbury. He was a friend of Henry Hudson and, in 1610, he was one of those who fitted out Hudson for his last voyage. As a result, Digges' name was given to Digges Islands, at the mouth of Hudson Bay in Canada, and to Cape Digges, at the easternmost extremity of these islands. In 1614, Digges was re-elected MP for Tewkesbury to the Addled Parliament. He backed the explorations of William Baffin in 1615 and 1616, with several of the same group of "adventurers". In 1616 he completed his mansion of Chilham Castle, Kent, on land inherited from his father-in-law.