Henry Conyngham (soldier)

Major General Henry Conyngham of Slane Castle (before 1681–1706) was an Irish soldier and politician.

He was a Member of Parliament in the Parliament of Ireland for Killybegs in 1692–93 and for County Donegal in 1695–99 and 1703–06.[1]

Conyngham served during the reign of James II as a captain in Mountjoy's Regiment. He was promoted lieutenant-colonel of Robert Echlin's (formerly Sir Albert Conyngham's) Regiment of Dragoons on 31 December 1691 and appointed colonel of a newly raised regiment of dragoons on 1 February 1693. He was promoted to brigadier-general on 1 January 1703 and major-general on 3 April 1705. He served in Portugal and Spain during the War of the Spanish Succession, where he was Governor of Lerida and Lieutenant-General of the King of Spain's army. He was killed fighting the French at the Battle of St Estevan in January 1706.[2]

Family edit

He was the only surviving son of Sir Albert Conyngham and Margaret Leslie.[3] By his wife Mary, widow of Charles Petty, 1st Baron Shelburne and daughter of Sir John Williams, 2nd Baronet, of Minster and Susan Skipwith, he had two sons, William (died 1738) and Henry Conyngham, 1st Earl Conyngham, and an only surviving daughter, Mary Conyngham, who married Francis Burton.[4] Their son Francis Conyngham, 2nd Baron Conyngham, was an ancestor of the Marquesses Conyngham,[5] who also inherited the Minster estate.[6]

Notes edit

  1. ^ "Biographies of Members of the Irish Parliament 1692-1800". Ulster Historical Foundation. Retrieved 6 June 2014.
  2. ^ Dalton 1896, p. 183, Note 2, line 3: "Killed at the battle of St. Estevan, in Spain, in Jan. 1706."
  3. ^ Dalton 1896, p. 183, Note 2, line 4: "This gallant officer was the only surviving son of Sr Albert Conyngham, Knt., and ancestor of the present Marquis Conyngham."
  4. ^ Kelly 2004, p. 80: "... Francis Burton (1696–1743) politician and landowner, of Buncraggy, co. Clare, Ireland, and Mary Conyngham (d.1737) the only surviving daughter of Major-General Henry Conyngham ..."
  5. ^ Patrick Cracroft-Brennan, Conyngham, Baron (I, 1781) Archived 2013-04-20 at archive.today in Cracroft's Peerage. Accessed 1 September 2012.
  6. ^ Cokayne 1902, p. 168: "He suc. to the estate of Minster Court, co. Kent, on the death, 26 March 1669, of his uncle Sir John Williams Bart. ..."

References edit