Author: Digby, Edward
Biography:
DIGBY, Edward (1770-1815?: ancestry.co.uk)
He was baptised on 13 Jan. 1770 at Tinwell, Northamptonshire, the eldest son of Joseph Digby, rector, and his second wife Sarah Moore, sister of the novelist Frances Brooke (q.v.), who had married in 1768. He was educated at Oakham school and Magdalene College Cambridge (sizar 1792) but does not appear to have proceeded to a degree. He later claimed to be a surgeon and to have attended lectures in London. He married Susannah Gardiner on 27 Aug. 1793, at New Sleaford, Lincoln. They went on to have several children, born in Lincolnshire. Around 1800 they moved to London where he purchased the lease of a house in Lambeth and hoped to establish a practise dealing with children’s diseases. She may have been the Susannah Digby who died in Feb. 1801 and was buried at St. Margaret’s, Westminster. In Aug. 1801 he baptised at Southwark a son he had with Ellen Digby; further children followed. His life unravelled when he was tried at the Old Bailey on 4 Nov. 1802 for a “Foot-Pad Robbery” at Primrose Hill on 11 October. He was tried under the name of John Jones to prevent reputational damage and was acquitted on the basis of mistaken identity. He claimed that the expenses of the trial led to his long imprisonment for debt in the King’s Bench Prison from 6 Nov. 1802 to 3 June 1805. From there he applied to the RLF several times and was made three small awards of between £5 and 10 guineas. However, despite his claiming a wife and six children and being “incarcerated and penniless,” the RLF put him on the infamous list (11 Aug. 1806) of 74 persons who were not to be helped further. The Poet was published in Southwark and gave a brief account of his “catastrophe.” It was first announced in his prose account, The Singular Trial of Mr. Jones, A Medical Gentleman (1805). He probably died in late 1815 but no burial record has been traced. In Jan. 1816 his widow Ellen applied to the RLF after his death and was awarded £10. Their marriage record has not been found and she may have been his common-law wife. (ancestry.co.uk 4 May 2024; RLF # 138; The Singular Trial of Mr. Jones [1805]; Stamford Mercury 30 Aug. 1793; Morning Post 5 Nov. 1802) AA