Edward Digby, 6th Baron Digby

Edward Digby, 6th Baron Digby (5 July 1730 – 30 November 1757) was a British peer and Member of Parliament.

Digby was the son of Hon. Edward Digby, son of William Digby, 5th Baron Digby. His mother was Charlotte Fox, daughter of Sir Stephen Fox and sister of Henry Fox, 1st Baron Holland.

He was a close connection of the Foxes, and from 1744 on regularly attended their annual shooting-party in Wiltshire. On 13 June 1751, he was returned at Malmesbury on Henry Fox's interest after the death of James Douglas. Around this time, he was appointed a Groom of the Bedchamber to George, Prince of Wales. On 27 November 1752, he succeeded his grandfather Edward as Baron Digby, an Irish peerage which did not oblige him to vacate his seat in the Commons. He resigned his bedchamber office in 1753 as a result of his succession.

Digby intended to contest Dorset, where he had large estates, in the next general election and asked for the support of the Duke of Newcastle, but when George Trenchard nominated him at the county meeting of gentlemen in August 1753, there was no enthusiasm for his candidacy and he dropped the plan. Instead, Fox had him returned for Wells at the 1754 election on a joint interest with Charles Tudway.

As befitted a connection of Fox, Digby was a Whig, but took relatively little interest in politics. His health was poor, and he hoped to obtain a higher peerage, either a British title or an Irish earldom, an object left unfulfilled. In 1756, he was operated on for kidney stones by Dr. Adair Hawkins. He survived the surgery, but the wound was slow to heal, and he was left an invalid until he died on 30 November 1757.

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