Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Conway, Francis Seymour
CONWAY, FRANCIS SEYMOUR, Marquis of Hertford (1719–1794), born in 1719, was son and heir of Francis Seymour, first lord Conway (who assumed the name of Conway), by his third wife, Charlotte, granddaughter of Sir John Shorter, lord mayor of London, and sister of the first wife of Sir Robert Walpole [q. v.] Succeeding his father as second baron Conway in 1732, he, on 3 Aug. 1750, was created Viscount Beauchamp and Earl of Hertford, titles recently extinct by the death of Algernon, seventh duke of Somerset. He became a lord of the bedchamber and K.G. in 1757; privy councillor in 1763; afterwards ambassador extraordinary to France; lord-lieutenant of Ireland in 1765; lord chamberlain 1766–82 and again April-Dec. 1783 in the coalition ministry; lord-lieutenant of Warwickshire from 1757 till death. On 3 July 1793 he was created Earl of Yarmouth, co. Norfolk, and Marquis of Hertford. He died on 14 June 1794.
He married (1741) Isabella, daughter of Charles Fitzroy, second duke of Grafton, by whom he had seven sons and six daughters. His eldest son, Francis (Ingram) Seymour [q. v.], succeeded to the titles.
[Sharpe's Peerage (1830); Nicolas's Synopsis ed. Courthope; Gent. Mag., lxiv. pt. i. p. 581; Bromley's Cat. of Engraved Portraits, p. 330.]