Fonds GB 0210 BODDAN - Bodrhyddan Estate Papers

The family derives from the ancient seat of the Conways of Prestatyn and Bodrhyddan. The estate descended in the male line until the death of the last male heir, Sir John Conway, in 1721. Sir John's daughter, Penelope, married James Russell Stapleton (d. 1743). They had a daughter, also called Penelope, who, in May 1753, married Ellis Yonge (1717-1787) of Bryn Iorcyn, Flintshire, and Acton Hall, Denbighshire. Ellis Yonge and Penelope had two children, Penelope and Barbara. In April 1777, Penelope Yonge married the Rev. William Davies Shipley, M.A., Dean and Chancellor of St Asaph (1745-1826). Their eldest son, Colonel William Shipley, is said to have been killed whilst out shooting at Hyeres in the South of France by the accidental discharge of his servant's gun.

Capt. William Shipley was his heir and it was he who first adopted the surname of Shipley-Conwy. He never married, and on his death, the estate passed to his sister Charlotte. She was married to Richard Thomas Rowley, the second son of Baron Langford of Somerhill, County Meath. Their son and heir was born at Bodrhyddan in January 1841, Conwy Grenville Hercules Rowley-Conwy. In 1869 he married Marion, second daughter of Capt. Frederick Harford of Down Place, Windsor. In November 1869, he assumed the additional surname of Conwy, and in 1895 obtained royal licence and authority that he and his issue might continue to use the surname of Conwy, in addition to and after that of Rowley. His son Rafe Grenville Rowley Conwy, died unmarried in April 1951, leaving the Bodrhyddan estate to his nephew Lord Langford.