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CONWAY, Sir John, 2nd Bt. (c.1663-1721), of Bodrhyddan, Flints.
Available from Boydell and Brewer
Constituency
Dates
Family and Education
b. c.1663, 1st s. of Sir Henry Conway. educ. Eton 1678; Christ Church, Oxf. matric. 10 June 1679, aged 16. m. (1) c.1687, Maria Margaretta (d. June 1690), da. and coh. of John Digby of Gayhurst, Bucks., 1s., d.v.p. 2da.; (2) Sept. 1701 (with £20,000), Penelope, da. of Richard Grenville of Wotton Underwood, Bucks., 2da. suc. fa. 4 June 1669.1
Offices Held
Freeman, Denbigh 1679; sheriff, Flints. Jan.-Nov. 1688, dep. lt. 1689-?96, j.p. by 1691-6, 1700-d.; commr. for assessment Denb. and Flints. 1689-90.2
Biography
Conway inherited his family’s traditional loyalty to the crown, but in his case it was tempered by an equal loyalty to the Church of England and the established institutions of the country. He accompanied the Duke of York to Oxford in 1683, receiving an honorary degree on the occasion, and he was returned for the county to the Parliament of 1685 as a Tory. He was appointed only to the committee of elections and privileges and to that to recommend ways of keeping up the price of wool and corn. He seems to have been a somewhat wild young man about town, and although his first wife came from a well-known Roman Catholic family, he was pricked as sheriff in 1688 to prevent him from standing for re-election. After regaining his seat in 1695 he voted consistently with the Tories, refusing to sign the Association of 1696. He died at Bath on 27 Apr. 1721, aged 58, and was buried at Rhuddlan, the last male of his family.3