Researching John Conyers

Conyers served more than fifty years in Congress, becoming the sixth-longest serving member of Congress in U.S. history; he was the longest-serving African American member of Congress. Conyers was the Dean of the House of Representatives. By the end of his last term, he was the last remaining member of Congress who had served since the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson.

After serving in the Korean War, Conyers became active in the civil rights movement. He also served as an aide to Congressman John Dingell before winning election to the House in 1964. He co-founded the Congressional Black Caucus in 1969 and established a reputation as one of the most liberal members of Congress. Conyers joined the Congressional Progressive Caucus after it was founded in 1991. Conyers supported creation of a single-payer healthcare system and sponsored the United States National Health Care Act. He also sponsored a bill to establish Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a federal holiday. Conyers ran for Mayor of Detroit in 1989 and 1993, but he was defeated in the primary each time.

Conyers served as the ranking Democratic member on the House Committee on the Judiciary from 1995 to 2007 and again from 2011 to 2017. He served as chairman of that committee from 2007 to 2011 and as Chairman of the House Oversight Committee from 1989 to 1995. In the wake of allegations that he had sexually harassed female staff members and secretly used taxpayer money to settle a harassment claim, Conyers announced his resignation from Congress on December 5, 2017.

Conyers was the eldest son of Tristram Conyers, serjeant-at-law, MP of Walthamstow and his wife Winifred Gerard, daughter of Sir Gilbert Gerard, 1st Baronet, MP of Flamberds, Harrow-on-the-Hill, Middlesex. He was educated at Merchant Taylors’ School from 1663 to 1665 and matriculated at Queen’s College, Oxford on 7 April 1666, aged 16. He then studied law at the Middle Temple from 1666, was called to the bar in 1672 and was made King's Counsel (KC) in about 1693. Conyers married, by licence dated 16 January 1681, Mary Lee, the daughter and heiress of George Lee of Stoke St, Milborough, Shropshire He became a bencher of his Inn in 1702. He was a cousin of Thomas Conyers, MP for Durham City,

Conyers was returned as Member of Parliament for East Grinstead at the 1695 general election, and sat until the 1708 general election when he was defeated. However also in 1708, he was returned unopposed as MP for West Looe. He was returned unopposed for East Grinstead again at the 1710 and 1713 general elections.

He was returned as MP for East Grinstead again in 1715 and 1722 and voted against the Government in all instances. He sat until his death in 1725. Conyers died on 10 March 1725. He and his wife had 16 children, including a son and five daughters. He was succeeded as MP for East Grinstead by his son Edward Conyers (c. 1693 – 23 April 1742).

He was the eldest son of Edward Conyers, MP and was educated at University College, Oxford (1735). He succeeded his father in 1742, inheriting a somewhat dilapidated Copt Hall, near Epping, Essex, which he demolished and rebuilt.

He was a Tory member of the Parliament of Great Britain for Reading from 1747 to 1754 and for Essex from 25 February 1772 to 8 September 1775.

He married twice; firstly Hannah, the daughter of Richard Warner, of North Elmham, Norfolk and secondly his cousin, Lady Henrietta Frances, the daughter of Thomas Fermor, 1st Earl of Pomfret. They had 13 children, of whom 8 survived.