Kenelm Digby was an English MP and High Sheriff.

He was born in Stoke Dry

Stoke Dry

Stoke Dry is a village in the county of Rutland in the East Midlands of England, about three miles southwest of Uppingham.In 2007 it had a population of 39. With only 14 homes this is a quiet village with its mediaeval church dedicated to Saint Andrew...

 (or Drystoke) in Rutland

Rutland

Rutland is a landlocked county in central England, bounded on the west and north by Leicestershire, northeast by Lincolnshire and southeast by Peterborough and Northamptonshire....

, the eldest son of Sir Everard Digby

Everard Digby (scholar)

Everard Digby was an English academic theologian, expelled as a Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge for reasons that were largely religious. He is known as the author of a 1587 book, written in Latin, that was the first work published in England on swimming; and also as a philosophical teacher,...

 and Margery (née Heydon) Digby and educated at Brasenose College, Oxford

Brasenose College, Oxford

Brasenose College, originally Brazen Nose College , is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. As of 2006, it has an estimated financial endowment of £98m...

 and the Middle Temple

Middle Temple

The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers; the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn and Lincoln's Inn...

. He should not be confused with Sir Kenelm Digby (1603–1665), also son of a Sir Everard Digby (executed for taking part in the Gunpowder Plot), of Buckinghamshire.

He was first elected to parliament as MP for Stamford

Stamford (UK Parliament constituency)

Stamford was a constituency in the county of Lincolnshire of the House of Commons for the Parliament of England to 1706 then of the Parliament of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800 and of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1918...

 in 1539. He was then appointed High Sheriff of Rutland

High Sheriff of Rutland

This is a list of High Sheriffs of Rutland. The High Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown: there has been a Sheriff of Rutland since 1129...

 in 1541.

He was returned as MP for Rutland

Rutland (UK Parliament constituency)

Rutland was a parliamentary constituency covering the county of Rutland. It was represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom until 1918, when it became part of the Rutland and Stamford constituency, along with Stamford in Lincolnshire...

 (as senior knight of the shire) in successive parliamentary elections in 1545, 1547, 1553 (March) and 1553 (October), 1555, 1558, 1559, 1571, 1572 and 1584. He was also appointed High Sheriff of Rutland a further six times in 1549, 1553, 1561, 1567, 1575 and 1585.

He died at the age of 70 plus and was buried in the church at Stoke Dry where his effigy lies. He had married Anna Cope, the daughter of Sir Anthony Cope

Anthony Cope (author)

-Life:He was the second son of William Cope of Hanwell, Oxfordshire, cofferer to Henry VII, by his second wife Joan, daughter of John Spencer of Hodnell, Warwickshire...

; they had three sons and six daughters.