CONWAY or CONWY family, of Botryddan (‘ Bodrhyddan ’), Flints.

The direct line ended with Sir JOHN CONWAY ( 1575 - 1641 ), son and heir of the last-mentioned. John Conway , on his death without issue in Aug. or Sept. 1641 . During the reign of James I and up to the eve of the Civil War the family showed distinct Romanist leanings , both Mary , Sir John 's wife, and WILLIAM CONWAY , his brother who succeeded him at Botryddan , figuring prominently in the recusant lists of the period along with the Conways of Sychtyn in the parish of Northop , descended from James Conway , one of the sons of John ‘ Aer Conwy Hen ’ by his second wife. This taint, however, had quite disappeared by the time William Conway 's son, Sir HENRY CONWAY ( 1630 - 1669 ), came into his inheritance. Created a bart. by Charles II , 25 July 1660 , he sat for Flintshire in the Pensionary Parliament from 1661 until his premature death in the autumn of 1669 . His eldest son, Sir JOHN CONWAY ( 1663 - 1721 ), succeeded as 2nd bart. Educated at Christ Church , Oxford , he was Member of Parliament for Flintshire 1685-7 , 1695-1701 , 1705-8 , and 1713-5 , and for Flint boroughs 1702 , 1708-13 , and 1715 until his death in 1721 . Although he had been one of James II 's retinue when he visited Oxford as duke of York in 1683 , Sir John 's loyalty as a Tory lay with the established institutions of church and state rather than with the Stuart dynasty . Indeed, he later declared himself in favour not only of the 1688 Revolution but also of the Hanoverian Succession .

The baronetcy became extinct with him, Henry , his only son by his first marriage (to Margaretta Maria — or M. Theophila , acc. to Pedigrees — daughter of John Digby of Goathurst ) having predeceased him. Penelope , the only child of his second marriage, to Penelope , daughter of Richard Grenville ( Greenould , acc. to Pedigrees ) of Wotton Under-wood, Bucks. , and heiress to the Botryddan estate , m. James Russel Stapleton , and of their four daughters and co-heiresses, Frances , the youngest, became the wife of Sir Robert Salusbury Cotton of Lleweni and Combermere abbey ( see Cotton , Sir Stapleton ). Penelope , daughter and co-heiress of Penelope , the eldest daughter, and Ellis Yonge of Acton and Bryn Iorcyn , m. William Davies Shipley , dean of S. Asaph . It may be of further interest to note that from Elizabeth , daughter of Sir John Conway by his first wife, who m. Sir Thomas Longueville , bart. , was descended Harry Longueville Jones , inspector of schools for North Wales .

Distantly related to the Conways of Botryddan (through Edward Conway , another son of John ‘ Aer Conwy Hen ’ by his second wife) were the Conways of Arrow and Alcester in Warwickshire , of whom Edward Conway (d. 1631 ) was Secretary of State , 1627-30 , and was created viscount Conway of Conway castle , 26 June 1627 . He bought the castle from the Crown in 1628 and his son, Edward Conway ( 1594 - 1655 ), the 2nd visc., took preliminary steps towards putting it into repair with a view to living there.