Tyler County, West Virginia    Biography of Orrin Bryte CONAWAY

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The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., 
Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 35-36

ORRIN BRYTE CONAWAY, a Middlebourne attorney and
prosecuting attorney of Tyler County, represents an Ameri-
can and English lineage embracing men and women of the
highest distinction for four centuries or more.

Conaway is a form of spelling adopted by the founder of
the Virginia line, though other branches of the America fam-
ily have followed the more usual spelling, Conway. Another
variant of the name is Conweye. The derivation is from
"Con" a Celtic word meaning head or chief, and "wy" a
river. The original form of the name was therefore Conwy.
In North Wales there is a river and a town called Conway.
Sir Edward Conway was knighted in 1596 for prowess in
Spain, where he was deputy governor. He was Baron Con-
way of Ragley, Warwick, and Viscount Conway of "Conwa
Castell" in Wales. Sir Edward married Dorathe, heiress
of Sir John Tracy. Lord Conway of Ragley was a friend
of Penn and of Henry Moore, a Platonist who spent much
of his time in Ragley, which he called a center of devotion
and a paradise of peace and piety. Lady Conway was said
to be a sister of the Earl of Nottingham.

Lancaster and Spottsylvania counties, Virginia, have
always been strongholds of the Conways. Edwin Conway
or Conaway, as he wrote his name, came to Virginia in 1640
from Worcester County, England. Sometimes he also spelled
his name Conneway. He appears in the Northampton
Records in June, 1642, as "Mr. Edwyn Conway, Clarke
(clerk) of this Corn." He married in England Martha
Eltonhead of Eltonhead. His second wife was a sister or
near relative of the well known John Carter of the Carter
family, and descendants of this line of Conways have it all
their own way when seeking admission to patriotic societies.
In the various generations the family held in turn every office
in the gift of the people. Edwin Conway was the third clerk
of Northampton County, and while he wrote a bad hand "it
was not so bad as Thomas Cooke's, another clerk." Edwin
died in Lancaster County in 1675.

Edwin second, born in 1654, married two wives, Sarah
Fleete and Elizabeth Thompson. From Edwin and Eliza-
beth descended James Madison, president of the United
States. Nellie Conaway or Eleanor Rose Conway, as some
historians name her, was of the fourth generation from
Edwin. She was a daughter of Francis Conway and mar-
ried at the age of eighteen Colonel James Madison, and
their son was president of the United States. She died at
Montpelier in 1829, lacking two days of being a hundred years
old. Martha Thompson, who married James Taylor, was
mother of Frances Taylor, who married Ambrose Madison,
grandfather of. the President. This is the Taylor family
which gave another president to the United States.

Eltonhead Conaway, daughter of the Virginia pioneer,
Edwin, married Henry Thacker, who was clerk of the Vir-
ginia Council. The Thackers were large land owners in
Virginia, and Colonel Edwin Thacker, born in 1695, was a
burgess sheriff of Middlesex County and a vestryman of
Christ Church.

Colonel Edwin Conaway, of the third generation, was
prominent in state and church, a member of the House of
Burgesses for many years. He was born in Lancaster County
and married Anna Ball, half sister of Mary Ball, mother of
Washington. The marriage papers of Anna Conaway, daugh-
ter of Colonel Edwin, are preserved in Virginia Archives and
are interesting documents. The father's consent to her
marriage is given in a paper of some length and its seal dis-
plays the arms of the family. Of this coat of arms some one
has written: "It indicates a branch of Lord Conway's family,
replanted and grown to another tree and requiring Arms of its
own for legal purposes."

Another family of Conways not descended from Edwin
of Lancaster was also in Virginia. The two families have a
common origin. Edwin of Lancaster descended from the
Lords Conway who traced back to that Edwin Conway who
married Anna, daughter and heiress of Richard Burdett of
Warwick. One of the King's Commissioners for Virginia,
1609-20, was Sir Edward Conway, and associated with him
was Captain Thomas Conway. They were probably brothers.
Two of the name, and brothers, who settled in North Carolina
were related to the Marquis of Hertford. The Pennsylvania
branch of the family claims William Conway, born in the
Valley of the Clyde, Wales, and who came to America before
1770, was a soldier in the Revolution and married Ruth
Adams, a native of Pennsylvania. Of this line were Dr.
Thomas Conway and William, who married Isabella Armour,
of Irish descent. New England also had its Conways. One,
William Conway, born in Camden, Maine, in 1802, was a
sailor for forty years.

The Conways in all generations have been stanch patriots.
Among those in the Revolution were Lieutenant Joseph, a
near relative of Nellie Conway Madison; Lieutenant James
and General Henry, who received for services to the State of
Virginia 4,666 acres of land. New Jersey's representative
in the war was Lieutenant Colonel John Conway.

Among marriage connections of the Southern branch of the
Conways are the families of the Fitzhughs, Blackwells, Stan-
nards, Spanns and Daniels. The distinguished author Mon-
cure Daniel Conway, who at the age of eighteen wrote a
pamphlet entitled "Free Schools in Virginia" that was pro-
nounced a masterly argument and undoubtedly influenced
the establishment of such schools in the state, was a native of
and represented a prominent branch of the Conway family in
Stafford County, Virginia, and his mother was a daughter of
John Moncure Daniel, who served as surgeon general in the
War of 1812 and was a granddaughter of Thomas Stone, one
of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Some
branches of the Conways claim royal descent from Edward I
through the Byrds, Beverleys and Nevilles. One Conway will
directs that forty shillings be paid "Mr. David Currie if he
will read my burial; I would not have a funeral sermon."

There must have been just one black sheep in the Conway
family, since in a will one member is cut off by his father with
the traditional shilling. The coat of arms of the Conway
family, preserved in several documents in the Virginia State
Archives, is recorded: " Sable on a band argent, cotised ermine,
a rose, gules, between two amulets of the last." Crest: "A
Moor's head, sidefaced proper, banded round the temples,
argent and azure." The motto: "Fide et amore."

The Conaways have been in Tyler County, West Virginia,
for several generations. Eli Conaway was born in that county,
and spent his life there as a farmer. He married Perthena A.
Ruffner. Their son, Charles I. Conaway, was born in Tyler
County in 1844 and died in 1894, and during his active life
was both a merchant and farmer. He married Elizabeth
Virginia Stealey.

Orrin Bryte Conaway, fifth of the ten children of his
parents, was born in Tyler County June 21, 1879. He
attended the public schools, graduated in 1900 from West
Virginia Wesleyan College at Buckhannon and subsequently
entered West Virginia University at Morgantown, from which
he received his A. B. degree in 1903 and his LL. B. degree in
1906. Since his graduation Mr. Conaway has been indus-
triously engaged in professional work at Middlebourne. He
has served as mayor of that town, and is now in his third
term as prosecuting attorney of Tyler County.

Mr. Conaway is member of the Phi Kappa Psi college
fraternity, and has served on the Official Board of the Meth-
odist Episcopal Church. March 8, 1911, at Middlebourne, he
married Maude K. Carpenter, daughter of J. S. and Frances
(Kramer) Carpenter. Mr. and Mrs. Conaway have had two
children: Helen K., born January 11, 1912, and died February
8, 1920, and Orrin Bryte, Jr., born February 14, 1918.