Thomas Nelson Jr. was a Founding Father of the United States, general in the Revolutionary War, member of the Continental Congress, and a Virginia planter. In addition to serving many terms in the Virginia General Assembly, he twice represented Virginia in the Congress, where he signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Fellow Virginia legislators elected him to serve as the commonwealth's governor in 1781, the same year he fought as a brigadier general in the siege of Yorktown, the final battle of the war.
Thomas Digges was an English mathematician and astronomer. He was the first to expound the Copernican system in English but discarded the notion of a fixed shell of immoveable stars to postulate infinitely many stars at varying distances. He was also first to postulate the "dark night sky paradox".
Leonard Digges was a well-known English mathematician and surveyor, credited with the invention of the theodolite, and a great populariser of science through his writings in English on surveying, cartography, and military engineering. His birth date is variously suggested as c.1515 or c.1520.
Edward Digges was an English barrister and colonist who became a premium tobacco planter and official in the Virginia colony. The son of the English politician Dudley Digges represented the colony before the Virginia Company of London and the royal government, as well as served for two decades on the colony's Council of State. Digges served as interim Colonial Governor of Virginia from March 1655 to December 1656, and for longer periods as the colony's receiver general and auditor-general. He is also known for planting mulberry trees and promoting the silk industry in the colony.
Sir Dudley Digges 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.
Richard Bennett was an English planter and Governor of the Colony of Virginia, serving 1652–1655. He had first come to the Virginia colony in 1629 to represent his merchant uncle Edward Bennett's business, managing his plantation known as Bennett's Welcome in Warrascoyack. Two decades later, Bennett immigrated to the Maryland colony with his family, and settled on the Severn River in Anne Arundel County.
Dudley is an English toponymic surname associated with the town of Dudley in West Midlands, England. Notable people with the surname include:
Colonel William Digges was a prominent planter, soldier and politician in the Colony of Virginia and Province of Maryland. The eldest son of Edward Digges (1620-1674/5), who sat on the Virginia Governor's Council for two decades but died shortly before Bacon's Rebellion, Digges fled to Maryland where he married Lord Calvert's stepdaughter and served on the Maryland Proprietary Council until losing his office in 1689 during the Protestant Revolution, when a Puritan revolt upset the Calvert Proprietorship. His eldest son Edward sold his primary Virginia plantation to his uncle Dudley Digges. It is now within Naval Station Yorktown. His former Maryland estate, Warburton Manor, is now within Fort Washington Park. Two additional related men with the same name served in the Virginia General Assembly, both descended from this man's uncle and his grandson Cole Digges (burgess): William Digges (burgess) and his nephew and son-in-law William Digges Jr. both represented now-defunct Warwick County, Virginia.
Mercer is an English and Scottish surname. It is an occupational name, derived from the Old French word "mercier" or "merchier", meaning a merchant: originally one trading in textiles (mercery).
Christopher Robinson was a planter, merchant and politician in the British colony of Virginia. Robinson held several public offices in Colonial Virginia and is the patriarch in America for one of the First Families of Virginia.
Dudley Digges (1665–1711) was a Virginia merchant, planter and politician who served in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly, as well as agent of the Royal African Company and factor for British merchants John Jeffreys and Micajah Perry Sr. After his marriage, Digges twice represented Warwick County in the House of Burgesses before being appointed to the Virginia Governor's Council in 1698. Digges also served as auditor and surveyor-general of Virginia from 1705 until his death, and purchased the E.D. Plantation where he had been born from his nephew Edward upon the death of his brother William in Maryland. That property, renamed Bellfield plantation, is now part of Naval Weapons Station Yorktown. His sons Cole and Dudley Digges Jr. would also continue the family's planter and political traditions.
Dudley Digges (1694–1768) was a Virginia attorney, merchant, planter and politician who served in the House of Burgesses representing the newly created Goochland County (1730–1732). Possibly the least known of three related men of the same name who served in the Virginia legislature during the 18th century, this man was the son of Dudley Digges Sr. who served in both houses of the Virginia legislature and bought the family's historic E.D. plantation in York County from his cousin. Geneologist John Frederick Dorman found that although this Dudley Digges was appointed a justice of the peace in Goochland County in 1735, three years later he bought 600 acres and moved back to James City County.
Dudley Digges 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.
Cole Digges (1691-1744) was a Virginia merchant, planter and politician who helped establish Yorktown, Virginia, and served more than two decades on the Virginia Governor's Council after representing Warwick County in the House of Burgesses.
Cole Digges (1748–1788) was a Virginia planter, military officer and politician who represented now-defunct Warwick County, in the Virginia House of Delegates (1778–1784) and during the Virginia Ratification Convention of 1788. Possibly the most famous of three related men of the same name who served in the Virginia legislature during the 18th century, and despite genealogical disagreement this man was most likely the son of Dudley Digges of Yorktown and Williamsburg and his first wife, Elizabeth Burwell Armistead. He served during the American Revolutionary War as a dragoon in the Continental Army, rising from the rank of cornet to lieutenant before resigning and starting his legislative career. The other two related men of the same name were his grandfather, Yorktown merchant Cole Digges who served in both houses of the Virginia legislature, and his cousin Cole Digges who briefly represented Warwick County in the House of Delegates before his death and this man's succession.
William Digges was a prominent planter and politician in the Colony of Virginia, who represented Warwick County, Virginia in the House of Burgesses from 1752 until 1771.
Edward Digges was a Virginia merchant, planter and politician who represented York County in the House of Burgesses.
William Digges was a Virginia planter and politician who represented now-defunct Warwick County, in the Virginia House of Delegates (1778-1784) and during the Virginia Ratification Convention of 1788. Although genealogists disagree as to his father, he was the grandson of Cole Digges who helped found Yorktown. The other two related men of the same name were his uncle and father in law William Digges who represented Warwick County for decades before the Revolutionary War, and great uncle William Digges who represented York County before moving to Maryland and serving in both house of that province's legislature. Because this man married his cousin, and the naming conventions of the day did not restrict "Jr" to a son, this man appears to be the William Digges Jr. who represented York County in the final Virginia Convention alongside his uncle Dudley Digges, and then in the first session of the Virginia House of Delegates where he joined Corbin Griffin, before his Warwick County inheritance.
Thomas Pate was a British merchant who became a planter, military officer, ferry owner and politician who served a term as burgess representing Gloucester County in the House of Burgesses. Rebel Nathaniel Bacon commandeered this man's house in Gloucester County during Bacon's Rebellion, and later Governor Howard also lived there. Across Mobjack Bay, the restored historic Yorktown home once named after this man is now renamed the "Cole Digges" house after a politically powerful successor owner and resident since recent archeological research indicates it was probably built decades after this man's death.
Edward Harwood was a planter, justice of the peace, military officer and politician who represented Warwick County in the Virginia House of Delegates.
