DIGBY 353 DIGBY OF GEASHILL, DIGBY OF SHERBORNE and DIGBY BARONY [I.] I. Robert Digby, s. and h. of Sir Robert D.,C) of" Coleshill, CO. Warwick (who d. 24 IVIay 161 8), by Lcttice, I. 1 620. mo jure Baroness Offaley [I.], granddaughter and h. 'gzn. of Gerald (FitzGerald), Earl of Kildare [I.], being h. ap. to Geashill in King's Co. and other considerable estates in Ireland belonging to his mother. He was, 29 July 1620, cr. BARON DIGBY OF GEASHILL in King's Co. [I.], with a spec, rem., failing heirs male of his body, to his brothers, George, Gerald, John, Symon, Essex, and Philip Digby, in like manner respectively ;(*") his mother, " Lettice Fitzgerald, alias Digby, widow," being, in the same patent, confirmed in the title of Baroness Offaley [I.] (which " she had long enjoyed ") for her life, the same to " revert again to the house of Kildare and not to the children of the said Lady Lettice. "("=) Gov. of King's Co. 1627; took his seat in the House of Lords [I.] 14 July 1634; P.C. [I.] Aug. 1641; commanded a troop of horse for the King early in 1 642. He ;«., istly, 1 5 Dec. 1 626, Sarah, widow of the Hon. Sir Thomas Moore (who d. i Dec. 1623), and 2nd da. of Richard (Boyle), i st Earl of Cork.e [I.], by his 2nd wife, Catherine, da. of Sir Geoffrey Fenton. She, who was b. in Dublin, 29 Mar. 1609, d. 14 July, and was bur. 12 Aug. 1633, in St. Patrick's, Dublin, aged 24. He w., 2ndly, Elizabeth, widow of Sir Francis Astley, of Hill Morton, co. War- wick (who d. 14 May 1638), da. of Sir James Altham, of Oxhey, Herts, by his 2nd wife, Mary, da. of Richard Stapers, of London, merchant. He d. at Cork House, Dublin, 7, and was bur. 9 June 1642, in St. Patrick's afsd. Fun. Ent. His widow, who was aged i in 1602, w., 3rdly, as his 2nd wife. Sir Robert Bernard, ist Bart, (who d. 18 Apr. 1666 in his 66th year). She d. 3, and was bur. 7 Jan. 1662/3 at St. Paul's, Covent Garden, Midx. Admon. 17 Nov. 1664, to a creditor. II. 1642. 2. Kildare (Digby), Baron Digby OF Geashill [I.], only s. and h. by istwife, b. circa 1631; a minor in 1642. On I Dec. 1658, he iuc. his grandmother Lettice, suo jure Baroness (*) This Sir Robert was eldest br. of John Digby, cr., in 161 8, Baron Digby of Sherborne, and, in 1622, Earl of Bristol as above stated, whose title and male issue became extinct in 1698. (*>) This is an early instance of an extensive spec. rem. to collaterals. For a list of, and some remarks on, special remainders granted to Commoners, see vol. iii, Appendix F. V.G. if) See the privy seal document and the preamble in Lodge, vol. vi, pp. 288 and 289. The peerage appears to have been granted to put an end to any claim that the heir general of the Earls of Kildare might have to any Peerage Barony [I.] invested in them, although other reasons are stated as "propter amplitudinem terrarum et possessionum quas habet tarn in hoc regno nostro Hibernije quam in regno nostro Angliae." 45
