Edward CONWAY

1º Viscount Conway

Born: ABT 1564

Died: 3 Jan 1631

Father: John CONWAY (Sir Knight) (See his Biography)

Mother: Helen (Eleanor) GREVILLE

Married: Dorothy TRACY (dau. of Sir John Tracy of Todington and Anne Throckmorton) (w. of Edmund Bray)

Children:

1. Edward CONWAY (2º V. Conway)

2. Son CONWAY

3. Son CONWAY

4. Dau. CONWAY

5. Dau. CONWAY

6. Dau. CONWAY

7. Dau. CONWAY


Son and heir of Sir John Conway, knight, by Helen or Eleanor, daughter of Sir Fulke Greville of Beauchamp's Court, Warwickshire. He was Knighted by Robert Devereaux, Earl of Essex in 1596 at the sacking of Cadiz. Afterwards served in the Netherlands as Governor of the Brill. (Chamberlain Letters during the reign of Elizabeth, p. 173). When the Brill was delivered up to the States of Holland (1616), he received an annual pension of 500 pounds. (Lord Carew, Letters to Sir T. Roe, p. 35).

On 30 Jan 1622-3 he was made one of the principal Secretaries of State, and he was continued in that office after the accession of Charles I (Thomas, Hist. Notes, ii., 497, 569; Hackman, Cat. of Tanner MSS., p. 88a). He was returned for Evesham to the parliament which assembled on 19 Feb 1623-4 (Willis, p. 196), and on 22 Mar 1624-5 he was created Baron Conway of Ragley in the County of Warwick. On 8 Dec 1625 he was constituted captain of the Isle of Wight. In 2 Car. I he was created Viscount Killultagh of Killutagh, County Antrim, Ireland (Lodge, Illustr. of British Hist. ed. 1838, ii. 553), and on 6 Jun 1627 Viscount Conway of Conway Castle in Carnarvonshire (Dugdale, Baronage, ii. 453). In 1626, William Payne asked Conway to petition the King on his behalf regarding several inventions of his designed to benefit the colonies. One of these inventions was a means of producing tobacco of the same quality as the Spanish variety. He became lord president of the council in Dec 1628, and was Ambassador to Prague (1623-1625).

He died in St. Martin's Lane, London on 3 Jan 1630-1.

By his wife Dorothy, daughter of Sir John Tracy of Todington, Gloucestershire, and widow of Edmund Bray, he had three sons and four daughters. His eldest son, Edward, succeeded to the family honours.
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