Hugh Conway (Lord Treasurer)

Sir Hugh Conway was created Lord Treasurer of Ireland in 1494 by King Henry VII of England. He replaced Sir James Ormonde as Lord Treasurer of Ireland. In 1504 he was appointed Treasurer of Calais by Henry VII ( Cal. Pat. Rolls Henry VIII, vol. ii, 365). Hugh Conway was an early supporter of Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond (later Henry VII), was sent by Margaret Beaufort, Henry's mother to Henry, in exile in France, in 1483 with a large sum of money and encouragement to invade England through Wales and seize the crown from Richard III. Henry did so in 1485 and Richard was killed at the Battle of Bosworth, where Hugh was present. Hugh was appointed Keeper of the Great Wardrobe by King Henry VII on 21 September 1485, was knighted in January 1486 at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth of York, daughter of King Edward IV, and married Elizabeth Courtenay, daughter of Edward, 5th Earl of Devon, in 1490. Sir Hugh Conway was appointed Sheriff of Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire by Henry VII in 1500. Sir Hugh was a son of John ‘ Aer Conwy Hen ’ of Bodrhyddan Hall and Constable of Rhuddlan Castle, Flintshire, Wales, by his first marriage, and descended from the ancient line of Conway (Conwy = Wales) and de Crevecouer (The Journal Of The Flintshire Historical Society (Appendix D: Conwy Pedigree (British Museum Harleian MS 1971))). Sir Hugh's younger half-brother was Edward Conway who married the heiress of Arrow and Alcester, Warwickshire, and was great-grandfather to Edward Conway, 1st Viscount Conway of Ragley Hall, ancestor of the present family of Seymour Conways, Marquis of Hertford.