Conway, Edward, 2nd Viscount Conway (1594 -1655)

Edward Conway was the eldest son of Edward Conway, 1st Viscount, and Dorothy, daughter of Sir John Tracy, of Teddington in Gloucestershire. He was educated at Queen's College, Oxford, where he matriculated 3 May 1611. He was knighted at Whitehall 25 March 1618, and elected Member of Parliament for Warwick 1624 1625, and for Yarmouth, Isle of Wight 1626. Summoned to Parliament in his father's Barony of Conway in 1628, he succeeded his father as 2nd Viscount in 1631. He was General of the Horse against the Scots, but was defeated by them at Newnburn near Newcastle in 1640. A member of the Assembly of Divines, he was described as "well versed in all parts of learning" and "of no mean powers as a scholar". He married, in October 1621, Frances daughter of Sir Francis Popham. Their eldest son and heir, Edward, 3rd Viscount, was created Earl Conway in 1679, and married twice, but his only son died in infancy. His library descended through his daughter to Sir John Rawdon Bart, and thence to the Marquess of Hastings, and was sold at auction by Mr Philips, Wheeler Gate, Nottingham on 29 December 1868. Over fifty books, including a manuscript catalogue of his library, are in the Robinson Library at the Armagh Anglican Cathedral of St Patrick. The catalogue lists 9,900 titles.