Footnotes

• The Rt. Rev. Essex Digby (d.1683) was the second son of Sir Robert Digby and Lettice FitzGerald, 1st Baroness Offaly. He married Thomasine Gilbert who died in childbirth and, later, Lettice Brereton. The union saw the birth of one son, Simon. Essex held the office of Bishop of Dromore and graduated from Trinity College, Dublin with a Doctorate in Divinity.
  
  Having been educated, like his father, at Trinity College, Simon Digby became Bishop of Elphin in January 1691. The circumstances surrounding Simon's proficiency in the art of miniature painting are unknown but his clientele was certainly an elevated one. Bishop Downes, writing to Archbishop Wake on 19 April 1720, comments that Simon 'was a great master of painting in little water-colours, and by that quality recommended himself to men in power and ladies, and so was early made a bishop' (Journal of Royal Archaeological Association of Ireland', II, 1872-3, p.253).
  
  Simon married Elizabeth Westenra, with whom he had eight sons and eight daughters. He died at his house at Lacken, County Roscommon, on 7 April, 1720, and was buried in the church of Tosara (Mount Talbot).

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Category: Regional and Estate Auctions / Miscellaneous

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