Mary Digges Lee

Mary Digges Lee (1745 – January 25, 1805) was the "First Lady of Maryland" during portions of the American Revolution, while her husband, Thomas Sim Lee, was the state's governor. Lee was later inducted into the Maryland Women's Hall of Fame. Biography Lee's ancestry included prominent politicians such as Dudley Digges, who lived in Britain, and Edward Digges, who immigrated to the United States and was politically involved there. Edward had settled in York County, Virginia in the second half of the 17th century; the family moved to Maryland in the 18th. Mary Digges was born in 1745 at her family's home of Mellwood Park in Prince George's County, Maryland, to Ignatius Digges and Elizabeth Parnham Craycroft Digges. Elizabeth died early in Lee's life, and Ignatius Digges remarried to Mary Carroll. Mary married Thomas Sim Lee, after overcoming her father's opposition to their marriage because of Thomas's different religion, on October 27, 1771. Ignatius, a practicing Roman Catholic, was reluctant to let his daughter marry Lee, an Anglican. His eventual acquiescence was contingent on their children being raised in the Catholic Church. Thomas Lee later converted to Catholicism, though the date is unclear. The new couple moved to Thomas Lee's estate, Needwood. They had eight children together.