Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 09.djvu/62

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Carew
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Carew

children. He was buried at St. Dunstan's-in-the-West on 2 Aug. 1618, the main incidents in his career being described in a memorial tablet in the church, and his name being kept in remembrance by a charitable bequest for the poor of the parish. At the close of his life Carew was involved in trouble. There was a rumour in January 1613 that he would be 'cozened' of eight or nine thousand pounds through the fraud of a person in whom he reposed great confidence, and a little later his eldest son was engaged in a quarrel with one Captain Osborne, 'and, whether thro' him or another Cary, poor Osborne was slain.'

[Court and Times of James I, i. 220, 330; Collect. Topog. et Geneal. v. 206–8; Bibl. Topog. Britt. i. 30; Herald and Genealogist, vii. 575; Visit. of Cornwall (Harl. Soc. 1874), p. 33.]

W. P. C.


CAREW, Sir NICHOLAS (d. 1539), master of the horse to Henry VIII, was the head of the younger branch of a very ancient family which traced its descent back to the Conquest, though the surname, derived from Carew in Pembrokeshire, dates only from the days of King John. The younger branch had been established at Beddington in Surrey from the time of Edward III. Sir Richard Carew, father of Sir Nicholas, was created by Henry VII a knight-banneret at the battle of Blackheath, and was sheriff of Surrey in 1501. Nicholas was probably born in the last decade of the fifteenth century. In 1513 he was associated with his father in a grant from the crown of the office of lieutenant of Calais Castle, which they went to hold in survivorship (Cal. State Papers, Hen. VIII, vol. i. No. 4570). In the same year he attended Henry VIII in his invasion of France, and received a 'coat of rivet' of the king's gilt at Thérouanne (ib. No. 4642). In December 1514 he married Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Bryan, vice-chamberlain to Catherine of Arragon (ib. ii. No. 1850, and p. 1466). At this time he was squire of the king's body, and is also called one of the king's 'cypherers,' which appears to mean cupbearers, in which capacity he had an annuity of 30 marks given him by patent on 6 Nov. 1515 (ib. No. 1116: see also p. 874). At his marriage lands were settled upon him and his wife in Wallington, Carshalton, Beddington, Woodmansteme, Woodcote, and Mitcham, in Surrey (ib. Nos. 1850, 2161). In 1517 his name is mentioned as cupbearer at a great banquet given by the king at Greenwich on 7 Julv in honour of the ambassadors of young Charles of Castile, afterwards the Emperor Charles V (ib. No. 3446). This is the first occasion on which we find him designated knight; and on 18 Dec. following, he being then knight of the royal body, was appointed keeper of the manor of Pleasaunce in East Greenwich, and of the park there. That he was a favourite with Henry VIII both at this time and long afterwards there is no doubt whatever. We learn from Hall, the chronicler, that early in the eleventh year of the reign (which means about May 1519) he and some other young men of the privy chamber who had been in France were banished from court by an order of the council for being too familiar with the king. Hall's 'Chronicle' is so accurate throughout in respect of dates, that we may take it for granted he is right here also; and, indeed, what he says is in perfect keeping with our knowledge from other sources. But in that case it must be observed that this was not the first occasion on which the council had insisted on his removal from the king's presence, for on 27 March 1518 the scholar Pace writes to Wolsey, 'Mr. Carew and his wife be returned to the king's grace — too soon after mine opinion' (ib. No. 4034). The king was still young and loved young companions, but he knew well how to guard himself against over-familiarity, and could freely allow any such cases to be corrected by his council while enjoying to the full the pleasures of the moment. On 11 Aug. of the same year he and Sir Henry Guilford 'had each of them from the standing wardrobe six yards of blue cloth of gold towards a base and a trapper, and fifteen yards of white cloth of silver damask to perform another base and trapper for the king's justs appointed to be at Greenwich upon' the arrival of the Flinch ambassadors' (Anstis, Order of the Garter, i. 241). Frequent mention is made of him even before this time in jousts and revels at the court (Cal. ii. 1507-10, Hall, Chronicle, 581).

In 1518–19 he was sheriff of Surrey and Sussex, his name being found on the commission of the peace for the former county from this time onward (Cal. ii. Nos. 4437, 4562). In May 1519, as we have already indicated, occurred what must have been at least his second expulsion from court, and though it was in some degree mitigated by his being given an honourable and lucrative post at Calais, we are told that it was 'sore to him displeasant.' It is commonly said that his disgrace was owing to his too great love of the French court, whose fashions he praised in preference to those of England; but Hall's words, from which the statement is derived, may possibly apply only to the gentlemen of the privy chamber who were removed along with him. So far as appears