He matriculated from The Queen's College, Oxford, on 3 May 1611 and is thought to have learnt military strategy from his uncle by marriage, Sir Horace Vere.

Conway was nominated by Lord Brooke to become Member of Parliament for Warwick between 1624 and 1625, and in 1626, he was elected for Yarmouth (Isle of Wight).

He became an Irish Privy Counsellor, Marshal of the Army in Ireland, and was served as a member of the Westminster Assembly of Divines from 1643 to 1649.

He was briefly imprisoned after being implicated in the plot by Edmund Waller and others to seize London for the king.

He was buried in Arrow, and his titles passed to his only son, Edward, who was later created Earl of Conway.