Edward Conway, 1st Earl of Conway (c. 1623 – 11 August 1683) PC, FRS, of

Ragley Hall Ragley Hall in the parish of Arrow in Warwickshire is a stately home, located south of Alcester and west of Stratford-upon-Avon. It is the ancestral seat of the Seymour-Conway family, Marquesses of Hertford. History The house was built by ...

Alcester Alcester ( ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon District in Warwickshire, England. It is west of Stratford-upon-Avon, and 7 miles south of Redditch. The town dates back to the times of Roman ...

, in

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Staffordshire and Leicestershire to the north, Northamptonshire to the east, Ox ...

, was an English peer and politician who served as

Secretary of State for the Northern Department The secretary of state for the Northern Department was a position in the Cabinet (government), Cabinet of the government of Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain up to 1782. Following this, the Northern Department became the Foreign Office, a ...

between 1681 and 1683.

Origins

Conway was born circa 1623, the son and heir of Edward Conway, 2nd Viscount Conway (1594–1655) by his wife Frances Popham, daughter of Sir Francis Popham (1573–1644) MP, of

Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

in Somerset and Littlecote in Berkshire (now Wiltshire).

Career

He succeeded as 3rd Viscount Conway (in the

Peerage of England The Peerage of England comprises all peerages created in the Kingdom of England before the Act of Union in 1707. From that year, the Peerages of England and Scotland were closed to new creations, and new peers were created in a single Peerag ...

) and 3rd Viscount Killultagh (in the

Peerage of Ireland The peerage of Ireland consists of those Peerage, titles of nobility created by the English monarchs in their capacity as Lordship of Ireland, Lord or Monarchy of Ireland, King of Ireland, or later by monarchs of the United Kingdom of Great B ...

) following the death of his father in 1655. Conway became a member of the

Irish Privy Council His or Her Majesty's Privy Council in Ireland, commonly called the Privy Council of Ireland, Irish Privy Council, or in earlier centuries the Irish Council, was the institution within the Dublin Castle administration which exercised formal execut ...

in 1660 and was a confidant of

James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde Lieutenant general, Lieutenant-General James FitzThomas Butler, 1st Duke of Ormond, Knight of the Garter, KG, Privy Council of England, PC (19 October 1610 – 21 July 1688), was an Anglo-Irish statesman and soldier, known as Earl of Ormond fr ...

. He became a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

on 2 January 1668, became governor of Charlemont Fort in 1671 and served as Master of the Ordnance in Ireland from 1679. On 3 December 1679, Conway was created Earl of Conway. On 2 February 1681 he joined the Privy Council of King Charles II and became

. He resigned in January 1683 amid allegations that he was complicit in "crimes and misdemeanours ... either in relation to the King's person or his public negotiations or transactions with foreign ambassadors, or in not rightly pursuing the King's instructions to ambassadors abroad". He also served as

Lord Lieutenant of Warwickshire This is an incomplete list of people who have served as Lord Lieutenant of Warwickshire. Since 1728, all Lord Lieutenants have also been Custos Rotulorum of Warwickshire. Lord Lieutenants of Warwickshire *Ambrose Dudley, 3rd Earl of Warwick 1569� ...

from 1682 to 1683.

Marriages

He married three times, but had no children who survived infancy: *Firstly on 11 February 1651 to the philosopher Anne Finch (died on 23 February 1679), daughter of Sir Heneage Finch. They had one son, Heneage, who died of smallpox in infancy. Following Anne's death, Conway retired to his family's seat,

in Warwickshire. *Secondly he married Elizabeth Booth (died in July 1681), daughter of

George Booth, 1st Baron Delamer George Booth, 1st Baron Delamer (18 December 1622 – 8 August 1684), was an English landowner and politician from Cheshire, who served as an Member of Parliament, MP from 1646 to 1661, when he was elevated to the House of Lords as Booth barone ...

. *Thirdly he married Ursula Stawell (died 13 August 1697), daughter of George Stawell, who survived him and remarried to John Sheffield, later 1st Duke of Buckingham and Normanby.

Death and burial

He died on 11 August 1683 and was buried in

Arrow, Warwickshire Arrow is a village in the Stratford-on-Avon district of Warwickshire, England. Together with the entirely rural hamlet of Weethley, it forms since 1 April 2004 the civil parish of Arrow with Weethley. The parish lies midway between Redditch an ...

Succession

As he died with no children, his titles became extinct. He appointed by his will as heir to his estates, including Ragley Hall, his eight-year old first cousin once removed Popham Seymour (1675–1699), eldest son of Laetitia Popham (a daughter of his uncle

Alexander Popham Alexander Popham (1605 – 1669) of Littlecote, Wiltshire, was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1640 and 1669. He was patron of the philosopher John Locke. Early life Popham was born at Littlec ...

(1605–1669), MP, of Littlecote) by her husband (to whom she was his second wife)

Sir Edward Seymour, 4th Baronet Sir Edward Seymour, 4th Baronet MP (1632/1633 – 17 February 1708) was a British nobleman, and a Royalist and Tory politician. Life Born at Berry Pomeroy Castle in Devon, of a family greatly influential in the Western counties, he was the eld ...

(died 1708) of

Berry Pomeroy Berry Pomeroy is a village and civil parish in the South Hams district of Devon, England, east of the town of Totnes. The parish is surrounded clockwise from the north by the parishes of Ipplepen, Marldon, Torbay (unitary authority), Stoke G ...

in Devon. His bequest stipulated that Popham Seymour should adopt the arms and additional surname of Conway, and thus he became known as Popham Seymour-Conway. The latter's nephew and eventual heir was

Francis Seymour-Conway, 1st Marquess of Hertford Francis Seymour-Conway, 1st Marquess of Hertford (5 July 1718 – 14 June 1794) of Ragley Hall, Arrow, in Warwickshire, was a British courtier and politician who, briefly, was Viceroy of Ireland where he had substantial estates. Background ...

, (1718–1794), whose seat became Ragley Hall, where his descendant the 9th Marquess is still seated in 2015.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Conway, Edward Conway, 1st Earl of 1620s births 1683 deaths Secretaries of state for the Northern Department Earls in the Peerage of England Fellows of the Royal Society Lord-lieutenants of Warwickshire Members of the Privy Council of England Members of the Privy Council of Ireland Viscounts Conway 17th-century English politicians