Edward Digges (burgess)

This Edward Digges was the firstborn son of the former Elizabeth Foliott Power and her planter and burgess husband Cole Digges. He was named to honor his great-grandfather Edward Digges, who emigrated to Virginia and served for decades on the Virginia Governor's Council, as would this boy's father after serving in the lower house of the Virginia General Assembly, the House of Burgesses. Many ancestors, relatives and descendants served in the House of Burgesses. His great uncle, William Digges, had served on the Maryland Proprietor's Council after representing York County in the Virginia House of Burgesses, then selling the E.D. plantation he had inherited as eldest surviving son to his youngest brother Dudley (this man's grandfather). That William Digges then founded the Maryland branch of the family which also included members of the same name and which intermarried with this branch, members of whom also intermarried.^[2][3] This man's birth family included two younger brothers who also served as burgesses, William (who inherited their mother's family property in nearby Warwick County) and Dudley (who succeeded this man as one of York County's burgesses and not only outlived this man but also served through the Revolutionary War). In any event, this man received an education appropriate to his class (in the First Families of Virginia) and firstborn status, perhaps including at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, but most of those records were subsequently lost, and the Edward Digges recorded as having attended was either his namesake son or Dudley Digges Jr.'s son.

He inherited his great-grandfather's plantation (renamed Bellfield or Bellefield) from his father, and in turn bequeathed it to his eldest surviving son, William, who married his cousin Elizabeth and inherited another of his grandfather's plantations, Denbigh in Warwick County, through that marriage. Both plantations were farmed using enslaved labor.

This Edward Digges began his public career in 1734 by accepting appointment as a justice of the peace for York County. He also served as an officer of the county militia, being named lieutenant colonel of horse and foot also in 1734. He would rise to the position of County Lieutenant in 1748.^[2] York County voters elected him as one of their representatives in the House of Burgesses in 1736 and re-elected him until 1752, when his youngest brother Dudley succeeded him.^[4] In the mid-1750s, his sons including Edward Jr. moved westward to then-vast Stafford County, from which other counties were created (including Fauquier County in 1759).^[5]