Edward Conway, 1st Earl of Conway

Edward Conway, 1st Earl of Conway PC, FRS, of Ragley Hall, Alcester, in Warwickshire, was an English peer and politician who served as Secretary of State for the Northern Department between 1681 and 1683.

Origins

Conway was born circa 1623, the son and heir of Edward Conway, 2nd Viscount Conway by his wife Frances Popham, daughter of Sir Francis Popham MP, of Wellington in Somerset and Littlecote in Berkshire.

He succeeded as 3rd Viscount Conway and 3rd Viscount Killultagh following the death of his father in 1655. Conway became a member of the Irish Privy Council in 1660 and was a confidant of James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society 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 Secretary of State for the Northern Department. 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 from 1682 to 1683.

He married three times, but had no children who survived infancy:

Firstly on 11 February 1651 to the philosopher Anne Finch, 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, Ragley Hall in Warwickshire.
Secondly he married Elizabeth Booth, daughter of George Booth, 1st Baron Delamer.
Thirdly he married Ursula Stawell, daughter of George Stawell, who survived him and remarried to John Sheffield, later 1st Duke of Buckingham and Normanby.

He died on 11 August 1683 and was buried in Arrow, Warwickshire.

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, eldest son of Laetitia Popham by her husband Sir Edward Seymour, 4th Baronet of Berry Pomeroy 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,, whose seat became Ragley Hall, where his descendant the 9th Marquess is still seated in 2015.