CONWAY, Hon. Henry Seymour (1719-95), of Park Place, Berks.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1715-1754, ed. R. Sedgwick, 1970
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

28 Dec. 1741 - 1747
1747 - 1754
1754 - 1761
1761 - 1774
27 Mar. 1775 - 1784

Family and Education

bap. 12 Aug. 1719, 2nd s. of Francis Seymour Conway, 1st Baron Conway, by his 3rd w. Charlotte, da. of John Shorter of Bybrook, Kent; bro. of Francis, 1st Earl of Hertford, and cos. of Sir Edward and Horatio Walpole. educ. Eton 1732. m. 19 Dec. 1747, Lady Caroline, da. of John Campbell, 4th Duke of Argyll [S], wid. of Charles Bruce, M.P., 3rd Earl of Ailesbury, 1da.

Offices Held

M.P. [I] 1741-68.

Lt. 5 Drags. 1737; capt.-lt. 8 Drags. 1740; capt.-lt. and lt.-col. 1 Ft. Gds. 1741, capt. 1742; col. army 1746; col. 48 Ft. 1746-9, 34 Ft. 1749-51, 13 Drags. 1751-4, 7 Drag. Gds. 1754-9; maj.-gen. 1756; lt.-gen. 1759; col. 1 Drags. 1759-64; lt.-gen. of the Ordnance 1767-72; col. 4 Drags. 1768-70, R. Horse Gds. 1770-d.; gen. 1772; gov. Jersey 1772-d.; c.-in-c. army 1782-3; f.m. 1793.

Groom of the bedchamber 1757-64; P.C. 10 July 1765; sec. of state, southern dept. 1765-6, northern dept. 1766-8.

Biography

Conway was returned for Higham Ferrers by Lord Malton on the recommendation of Sir Robert Walpole.1 His friend, Horace Walpole, writing 1751-2, describes him in his first Parliament as

a young officer who, having set out upon a plan of fashionable virtue, had provoked the King and Duke [of Cumberland] by voting against the army at the beginning of the war. He was soon after, by the interest of a near relation of his, placed in the Duke’s family, where he grew a chief favourite, not only by a steady defence of military measures on all occasions, but by most distinguished bravery in the battles of Fontenoy and Lauffeld (in the latter of which he was taken prisoner), by a very superior understanding, and by being one of the most agreeable and solid speakers in Parliament, to which the beauty of his person, and the harmony of his voice, did remarkably contribute.

He voted with the Government on the Hanoverians in 1742 and 1744, but was absent on active service from the division on them in 1746, when he was classed as Old Whig.

Brought in for Penryn by Lord Falmouth as a government supporter in 1747, Conway made a number of speeches in that Parliament on military matters. Towards the end of the Parliament Horace Walpole compares him to Charles Townshend, observing that they ‘seemed marked by nature for leaders, perhaps for rivals, in the government of their country’.2

He died 9 July 1795.

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: Romney R. Sedgwick

Notes

  • 1. Walpole to Ld. Malton, Dec. 1741, Cholmondeley (Houghton) mss.
  • 2. Walpole, Mems. Geo. II, i. 41, 341.