DIGBY, SIR KENELM, KNIGHT
Arms.—Quarterly.
1. Az., a fleur-de-lys arg. Digby.
2. Arg., a chevron between 3 crosses crosslet fitchée. Davenport.
3. Erm., on a bend sa., 3 goats' heads erased arg., armed or. Mulsho.
4. Gu., semé of crosses crosslet arg., 3 leopards' heads jessant-de-lys, arg. Neville.
On an escutcheon of pretence, the arms of Venetia Stanley.
Quarterly.
1st and 4th grand quarters arg., on a bend az., 3 bucks' heads cabossed or, a crescent for difference. Stanley.
2nd grand quarter, quarterly.
1st and 4th or, a lion rampant az. The Duke of Brabant.
2nd and 3rd gu., 3 lucies hauriant arg. Lucy.
3rd grand quarter az., 5 fusils conjoined in fess or. Percy.
Crest.—An ostrich arg., with a horseshoe in his mouth ppr.
Helmet.—That of an Esquire.
[Aristotle. Opera. Lut. Parisiorum, 1619.]
Variety.—Impaled.
Dexter: Quarterly.
| 1st and 4th, Digby. | Sir Kenelm Digby. |
| 2nd and 3rd, Mulsho. |
Sinister: Quarterly.
| 1st and 4th, Stanley. | Venetia Stanley. |
| 2nd and 3rd, The Duke of Brabant. |
[Boccalini. Delli Avvisi di Parnaso. Venetia, 1619.]
Variety.—Within a vesica.
Quarterly.
| 1. Digby. | 3. Mulsho. | Sir Kenelm Digby. |
| 2. Davenport. | 4. Neville. |
On an escutcheon of pretence.
Quarterly.
| 1. Stanley. | 3. Lucy. | Venetia Stanley. |
| 2. The Duke of Brabant. | 4. Percy. |
Legend.—Insignia Kenelmi Digby Eqvitis Avrati.
[Plato. Opera. Paris, 1578.]
Initials "K.D." for Kenelm Digby, and "V." for Venetia, his wife.
[Aristotle. Opera. Lut. Parisiorum, 1619.]
Kenelm Digby (born 11th July 1603, died 11th June 1665) was the elder son of Sir Everard Digby, Knight, and Mary Mulsho, his wife. He inherited large estates from his father in spite of the fact that much of Sir Everard's property had been confiscated. Kenelm Digby was educated at Oxford, at Gloucester Hall, near Worcester College. He travelled much on the Continent, particularly in France and in Spain. In 1623 he was Knighted by James I. Quite early in life he had fallen in love with Venetia, daughter of Sir Edward Stanley, and in 1625 he married her.
In 1627 Digby fitted out and commanded a curious privateering expedition, and captured several French, Dutch, Spanish, Flemish, and Venetian ships, but his conduct was disavowed by the English government. Digby was suspected of popish sympathies and suffered various terms of imprisonment in consequence, but in 1643 he was allowed to leave England for France, and for a time he made his home in Paris, a town to which he had always been very partial, and he appears to have been well received by Louis XIV.
Sir Kenelm Digby wrote a large number of books, religious, philosophical, and scientific; he was a man of much imagination, and took delight in inventing quack medicines. He possessed a large library; many of his books were presented to the Bodleian Library at Oxford, others are said to have been given to Louis XIV., and others again were scattered. On some of the volumes the coat-of-arms of Digby alone occurs, but in the majority of cases the coat-of-arms is quartered with various other family coats, and has also the coat-of-arms of Venetia Stanley either impaled or borne as an escutcheon of pretence. Many of Sir Kenelm's books were bound in Paris.
