Edward Conway, 1st Viscount Conway

The Viscount Conway
Lord President of the Council
In office
1628–1631
MonarchCharles I
Preceded byThe Earl of Marlborough
Personal details
Born
Edward Conway

1564 (1564)
Died3 January 1631(1631-01-03) (aged 66–67)
St Martin's Lane, London, England
Resting placeArrow, Warwickshire, England
NationalityEnglish

Edward Conway, 1st Viscount Conway PC (1564 – 3 January 1631) was an English soldier and statesman. Notable among his descendants are Queen Elizabeth II and Barack Obama.[1] He was the son and heir of Sir John Conway of Arrow, and his wife Ellen or Eleanor, daughter of Sir Fulke Greville of Beauchamp's Court, Warwickshire.[2]

Lord Conway commanded a foot regiment at the sack of Cadiz in 1596, where he was knighted.[3] He then served as governor of Brill, an English Cautionary Town near Rotterdam in the Netherlands, where his daughter Brilliana (who married Robert Harley) was born. In the first parliament held in the reign of James I, he sat as member for Penryn. When Brill was handed back to the States of Holland in 1616, he was given a pension.

Conway was appointed to the Privy Council in 1622 and made a Secretary of State in January 1623 for five years. In the parliament which convened on 19 February 1624 he was returned for Evesham. He was created Baron Conway, of Ragley, in 1624 or 1625 and Viscount Conway in 1627, and received the Irish peerage title of Viscount Killultagh. No doubt as a result of his time in the Netherlands, he was a supporter of a 'Protestant' foreign policy; he was sent as ambassador to Prague. In 1628, he was appointed Lord President of the Council, a post he held until his death on 3 January 1631.

Family

Conway married firstly Dorothy (died 1613),[4] daughter of Sir John Tracy of Tedington, Gloucestershire, and widow of Edmund Bray. They had three sons and four daughters, including Conway's son and heir Edward.[2]

In 1614[5] or 1615,[4] Conway married secondly Katherine (died 1639), daughter of Giles Hueriblock, a merchant from Ghent, and widow of John West (died 1612) and Richard Fust (died 1613), both of the London Grocers' Company. She was an extensive investor in New World ventures including the Virginia Company.[5] The second Lady Conway left various bequests for education and relief of poverty. She is buried in St Mary's Church, Acton.[6]

Notes

References

Attribution
Parliament of England
Preceded by
Thomas Prowse
William Maynard
Member of Parliament for Penryn
1610–1611
With: William Maynard
Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Evesham
1624
With: Richard Cresheld
Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire
1625–1631
Succeeded by
Preceded by Secretary of State
1623–1628
With: George Calvert 1623–1625
Albertus Morton 1625
John Coke 1625–1628
Succeeded by
Preceded by Lord President of the Council
1628–1631
Unknown
Next known title holder:
The Earl of Shaftesbury
Preceded by Governor of Brill, The Netherlands.
1596–1616
Vacant
Next known title holder:
unknown
Peerage of England
New creation Viscount Conway
1627–1631
Succeeded by
Baron Conway
(descended by acceleration)

1624/1625–1628
Peerage of Ireland
New creation Viscount Killultagh
1627–1631
Succeeded by