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CONWAY, John (by 1522-79), of Rhuddlan and Bodrhyddan, Flints.
Available from Boydell and Brewer
Family and Education
b. by 1522, 1st s. of John Conway of Rhuddlan by Elizabeth, da. of Sir Thomas Hanmer of Hanmer. m. (1) lic. 7 Oct. 1539, Sian, da. of Robert Salesbury of Rûg, Merion. and Bachymbyd, Denb., 3s. 5da.; (2) Anne, da. of Gruffydd ap Ieuan ap Llywelyn Fychan of Llannerch, wid. of John Mutton of Rhuddlan. suc. fa. by 1540.
Offices Held
Escheator, Flints. 1550-1, 1552-3, 1563-4, 1567-8, sheriff 1558-9, j.p. 1555, from 1564.
Biography
The Conway family, settled in Flintshire since the end of the thirteenth century, had, by the end of the sixteenth century, declined in importance, perhaps through their lukewarm attitude towards the Elizabethan church settlement. Four successive generations married into recusant families.
In the musters of 1570, Conway was charged, in company with his second wife’s brother and nine other Flintshire gentlemen, with ‘one light horseman furnished’, the obligation to provide a second horseman being restricted to only two landowners in the shire. Conway’s will, dated 26 Feb. 1579, and proved six months later, showed him to be the owner of several small properties in the county. The chief beneficiaries were his widow and two daughters, who acted as executors. Conway wished to be buried in Rhuddlan parish church. William Parry, executed for treason in 1585, was his third cousin.
Dwnn, Vis. Wales, ii. 296-7; Flenley, Cal. Reg. Council, Marches of Wales, 75, 141; PCC 38 Bakon; Flints. Hist. Soc. Pub. xviii. 61-74; xix. 61-86.