Walter Mitchell Digges (February 17, 1877 – October 5, 1934) was an American lawyer, judge, and delegate in the

Maryland General Assembly The Maryland General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Maryland that convenes within the State House in Annapolis. It is a bicameral body: the upper chamber, the Maryland Senate, has 47 representatives, and the lower ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

, United States. He was a member of the Democratic Party, and served as a Justice of the state's high court, the

Maryland Court of Appeals The Supreme Court of Maryland (previously the Maryland Court of Appeals) is the highest court of the U.S. state of Maryland. The court, which is composed of one chief justice and six associate justices, meets in the Robert C. Murphy Courts of ...

from 1923 to 1934.

Biography

Digges was part of a prominent Maryland family. He was born on February 17, 1877, in

Charles County, Maryland Charles County is a county located in the U.S. state of Maryland. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 166,617. The county seat is La Plata. The county was named for Charles Calvert (1637–1715), third Baron Baltimore. T ...

, to Dr. John T. Digges and his wife Catherine, née Mitchell. He studied at Charlotte Hall Military Academy,

Maryland Agricultural College The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the Universi ...

(a predecessor of the University of Maryland), and Maryland Law School, from which he graduated in 1902. He was admitted to the Maryland

bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar ** Chocolate bar * Protein bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a laye ...

the same year. Digges, a Democrat, beat Republican Sydney Mudd II in a close race to become a member of the

Maryland House of Delegates The Maryland House of Delegates is the lower house of the Maryland General Assembly, legislature of the U.S. state of Maryland. It consists of 141 delegates elected from 47 districts. The House of Delegates Chamber is in the Maryland State House ...

and served from 1910 until 1912. In 1910, he tried to pass the

Digges Amendment The Digges Amendment was an amendment to the Maryland Constitution, proposed in 1910, to curtail the Fifteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution and disenfranchise black voters in the state with the use of a property requirement. It was ...

, which would have barred African Americans from voting. It was co-sponsored by William J. Frere, also from Charles County, in the

Maryland Senate The Maryland Senate, sometimes referred to as the Maryland State Senate, is the upper house of the General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Maryland. Composed of 47 senators elected from an equal number of constituent single ...

. Digges had a law partnership with Walter Jenifer Mitchell until 1923, when Digges was appointed to the bench as a judge on the

. By 1933 he was Chief Judge of the 7th Judicial Circuit Court. He was president of the

Maryland State Bar Association The Maryland State Bar Association (MSBA) is a voluntary bar association for the state of Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of ...

at the time of his death. Digges was for some time a Naval Officer of Customs for the Department of Customs at the

Port of Baltimore The Helen Delich Bentley Port of Baltimore is a Port, shipping port along the tidal basins of the three branches of the Patapsco River in Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland, on the upper northwest shore of the Chesapeake Bay. It is the nation's la ...

Personal life

Digges married Mary Natalie Jenkins and they had four children: Eleanor Jenkins Digges, John Dudley Digges, Walter Mitchell Digges Jr., and Edward Simms Digges. He died on October 5, 1934, at his home in

La Plata La Plata () is the capital city of Buenos Aires province, Argentina. According to the 2022 Argentina census, census, the La Plata Partido, Partido has a population of 772,618 and its metropolitan area, the Greater La Plata, has 938,287 inhabit ...

and was buried in the town after a service at the Christ Episcopal Church on October 18. His house, constructed for him in 1914-1915 and variously called "Chillum" and "Chilham", is of historic importance. Its name is derived from

Chilham Chilham is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Ashford in Kent, England. It sits on the north bank of the Great Stour around to the southwest of Canterbury and northeast of Ashford. It is a mostly agricultural parish, with settlemen ...

in England, from whence his ancestors came.

References

1877 births 1934 deaths People from La Plata, Maryland Charlotte Hall Military Academy alumni Democratic Party members of the Maryland House of Delegates University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law alumni 20th-century Maryland state court judges American people of English descent 20th-century members of the Maryland General Assembly {{Maryland-politician-stub