Peter Carew (died 1580)

Last updated

Arms of Carew: Or, three lions passant in pale sable CarewArms.png
Arms of Carew: Or, three lions passant in pale sable

Sir Peter Carew (died 25 August 1580) was an English soldier who was slain at the Battle of Glenmalure in Ireland. He was a member of a prominent Devonshire gentry family. He is sometimes referred to as Sir Peter Carew the younger, to distinguish him from his first cousin (and immediate predecessor as head of the family) Sir Peter Carew (c.1514–1575) of Mohuns Ottery, Luppitt, Devon.

Contents

Origins

Peter Carew was the eldest son of George Carew (1497/8–1583), Dean of Windsor, Dean of Exeter and Archdeacon of Totnes, third son of Sir Edmund Carew, Baron Carew, of Mohuns Ottery in the parish of Luppitt, Devon, by his wife Catharine Huddesfield, a daughter and co-heiress of Sir William Huddesfield (died 1499) of Shillingford St George in Devon, Attorney General to Kings Edward IV (1461–1483) [1] and Henry VII (14851509). [2] His younger brother was George Carew (1555–1629), later 1st Earl of Totnes; and his sister was Mary Carew (d. 1604), the wife of Walter II Dowrich of Dowrich in the parish of Sandford near Crediton in Devon. Mary Carew's monumental brass survives in Sandford Church.

Career

Carew inherited the Irish territorial barony of Idrone or Odrone, representing about 6,360 acres, or a fifth part of County Carlow, from his senior cousin, Sir Peter Carew (c.1514–1575) of Mohuns Ottery. [3] In September 1579 he was knighted. [4]

On 25 August 1580, during the Second Desmond Rebellion, Carew was in the vanguard of the army of Arthur Grey, 14th Baron Grey de Wilton, when it was ambushed by Irish insurgents in the narrow valley of Glenmalure in the Wicklow uplands. The English attempted to climb the steep valley sides, but Carew, exhausted by trying to run in heavy armour, was captured. He was disarmed, and his captors planned to hold him for ransom, until "one villaine most butcherlie ... with his sword slaughtered and killed him". [5]

Sir Peter's brother, George, who was also present at the engagement but not in the vanguard, wrote to Sir Francis Walsingham of his determination "to leave my bones by his, or else I will be thoroughly satisfied with revenge", and subsequently made it his business to kill two of those implicated in his brother's death. [6]

Family

Carew married Audrey Gardiner, a daughter of William Gardiner of Grove, Buckinghamshire. The couple had a son, Peter, who died young; and a daughter, Anne, who married first William Wilford, and second (in 1605) Sir Allen Apsley (1567–1630). [7] Audrey survived Sir Peter and married as her second husband Sir Edmund Verney [2] (1535–1599) of Pendley in the parish of Tring, Hertfordshire, [8] Sheriff of Buckinghamshire and Sheriff of Hertfordshire. [9]

Commemoration

Tomb of Sir Gawen and Elizabeth Carew, Exeter Cathedral Gawen Carew monument.jpg
Tomb of Sir Gawen and Elizabeth Carew, Exeter Cathedral

Carew is associated with an extravagant two-tiered tomb monument in the Chapel of St John the Evangelist in Exeter Cathedral, of which the primary commemorative subjects are his uncle, Sir Gawen Carew (c.1508–1584), and Sir Gawen's third wife, Elizabeth née Norwich (d. 1594), a Lady of the Bedchamber to Elizabeth I. [10] [11] The monument was erected in 1589, and heavily restored in 1857. In addition to effigies of Sir Gawen and Elizabeth, it displays much strapwork decoration and heraldry, including 27 shields containing 52 distinct coats of arms marshalled in a total of 359 impalements and quarterings. [12] The whole forms "an elaborate shrine to Carew ancestry and kinship". [13]

A prominent Latin inscription formerly on the monument's pediment explicitly commemorated Sir Peter, but is now lost. It began "Hic scitus est praeter nobilis vir Petrus Carew eques Auratus ..." ("Here too lies the illustrious man Peter Carew, knight ..."), raising the possibility that his body, or some token part of it, was recovered from the battlefield at Glenmalure and returned to Exeter for burial. [14]

A third effigy, occupying a recess at the base of the monument, is dressed in armour and posed in a cross-legged attitude suggestive of the 14th century; and it has long been believed that this represents Sir Peter in the guise of a fallen warrior. [15] The identification is supported by another painted inscription, which survives in restored form running around three sides of the cornice, and which alludes to "... Sir Peter Carew Knyght, under figured ...". [16] However, the inscription is not original to the monument (it can date from no earlier than 1605), and it now appears considerably more likely that the cross-legged figure was intended to represent Adam Montgomery de Carew, the semi-legendary progenitor of the Carew family. [17]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Hooker (English constitutionalist)</span> Member of the Parliament of England

John HookeraliasJohn Vowell of Exeter in Devon, was an English historian, writer, solicitor, antiquary, and civic administrator. From 1555 to his death he was Chamberlain of Exeter. He was twice MP for Exeter in 1570/1 and 1586, and for Athenry in Ireland in 1569 and wrote an influential treatise on parliamentary procedure. He wrote an eye-witness account of the siege of Exeter during the Prayer Book Rebellion in 1549. He spent several years in Ireland as legal adviser to Sir Peter Carew, and following Carew's death in 1575 wrote his biography. He was one of the editors of the second edition of Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles, published in 1587. His last, unpublished and probably uncompleted work was the first topographical description of the county of Devon. He founded a guild of Merchant Adventurers under a charter from Queen Mary. He was the uncle of Richard Hooker, the influential Anglican theologian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arthur Champernowne</span> 16th-century English politician

Sir Arthur Champernowne was an English politician, high sheriff and soldier who lived at Dartington Hall in Devon, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Carew</span> English adventurer

Sir Peter Carew of Mohuns Ottery, Luppitt, Devon, was an English adventurer, who served during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England and took part in the Tudor conquest of Ireland. His biography was written by his friend and legal adviser, the Devon historian John Hooker.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Carew, 1st Earl of Totnes</span>

George Carew, 1st Earl of Totnes, known as Sir George Carew between 1586 and 1605 and as The Lord Carew between 1605 and 1626, served under Elizabeth I during the Tudor conquest of Ireland and was appointed President of Munster. He was an authority on heraldry and the author of Carew's Scroll of Arms 1588, Collected from Churches in Devonshire etc., with Additions from Joseph Holland's Collection of Arms 1579.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walter Yonge (died 1649)</span>

Walter Yonge (1579–1649) of Great House in the parish of Colyton in Devon, England, was a lawyer, merchant and diarist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sir Walter Yonge, 2nd Baronet</span>

Sir Walter Yonge, 2nd Baronet of Great House, Colyton, and of Mohuns Ottery, both in Devon, was a Member of Parliament for Honiton (1659), for Lyme Regis (1660) and for Dartmouth (1667–70).

Sandford is a village and civil parish in the Mid Devon district, within Devon, England. Sandford is part of the electoral ward named Sandford and Creedy. The ward population at the 2011 Census was 3,429.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Luppitt</span> Village in Devon, England

Luppitt is a village and civil parish in East Devon situated about 6 kilometres (4 mi) due north of Honiton.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Carew (admiral)</span> English soldier, admiral and adventurer

Vice-Admiral, Sir George Carew was an English soldier, admiral and adventurer during the reign of King Henry VIII who died in the sinking of the Royal Navy flagship Mary Rose at the Battle of the Solent during an attempted French invasion in the Italian War of 1542–1546. Scion of a controversial and dramatic family, Carew had a wild youth and explored widely, being arrested several times for associating with rebellious vassals of the king. Carew successfully tamed this nature in his later years, during which he became a trusted advisor and military officer in the King's service.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dittisham</span> Village in Devon, England

Dittisham is a village and civil parish in the South Hams district of the English county of Devon. It is situated on the west bank of the tidal River Dart, some 2 miles (3.2 km) upstream of Dartmouth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Carey (c. 1541 – 1616)</span> Member of the Parliament of England

Sir George Carey, JP, DL, of Cockington in the parish of Tor Mohun in Devon, England, was Lord Deputy of Ireland from May 1603 to February 1604.

George Carew (1497/98–1583) was an English churchman who became Dean of Exeter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hugh Pollard (sheriff)</span>

Sir Hugh Pollard lord of the manor of King's Nympton in Devon, was Sheriff of Devon in 1535/6 and in 1545 was appointed Recorder of Barnstaple in Devon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Huddesfield</span>

Sir William Huddesfield of Shillingford St George in Devon, was Attorney General for England and Wales to Kings Edward IV (1461–1483) and Henry VII (1485–1509). He built the tower of St George's Church, Shillingford.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mohuns Ottery</span> Historic manor in Devon, England

Mohuns Ottery or Mohun's Ottery, is a house and historic manor in the parish of Luppitt, 1 mile south-east of the village of Luppitt and 4 miles north-east of Honiton in east Devon, England. From the 14th to the 16th centuries it was a seat of the Carew family. Several manorial court rolls survive at the Somerset Heritage Centre, Taunton, Somerset.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dowrich</span> Historic estate in Devon, England

Dowrich is an historic estate in the parish of Sandford, on the River Creedy, three miles north-east of Crediton in Devon, England. Between the 12th century and 1717 it was the seat of the ancient gentry family of Dowrish which took its name from the estate where it had become established before the reign of King John (1199–1216), when it built a castle keep on the site. A 15th century gatehouse survives there today, next to the ancient mansion house.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Peyton (died 1484)</span> Sheriff of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire

Thomas Peyton (1418–1484) of Isleham, Cambridgeshire, was twice Sheriff of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire, in 1443 and 1453. He rebuilt the church of St Andrew's in Isleham, in the chancel of which survives his monumental brass. He is depicted in a 1485 stained glass window in Long Melford Church, Suffolk, where he displays on his surcoat the Peyton arms: Sable, a cross engrailed or a mullet in the first quarter argent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nicholas Carew (died 1311)</span>

Nicholas Carew, Lord of Moulsford, was a baron of medieval England who took part in the Wars of Scottish Independence.

Walter FitzOther was a feudal baron of Eton in Buckinghamshire and was the first Constable of Windsor Castle in Berkshire, a principal royal residence of King William the Conqueror, and was a tenant-in-chief of that king of 21 manors in the counties of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Surrey, Hampshire and Middlesex, as well as holding a further 17 manors as a mesne tenant in the same counties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indio, Bovey Tracey</span> Human settlement in England

Indio in the parish of Bovey Tracey in Devon, is an historic estate. The present large mansion house, known as Indio House is a grade II listed building rebuilt in 1850, situated about 1/2 mile south of Bovey Tracey Church, on the opposite side of the River Bovey. According to the Devon historian Pole (d.1635) it was originally a priory, however research from 1840 onwards has suggested it was more likely merely a grange farm, a possession of St John’s Hospital, Bridgwater, Somerset, from 1216.

References

  1. Vivian, J. L., ed. (1895). The Visitations of the County of Devon: comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620. Exeter. p. 246.
  2. 1 2 Vivian 1895, p.135.
  3. Hooker, John, The Life and Times of Sir Peter Carew: Kt., (from the Original Manuscript), p. 254, footnote
  4. Shaw, William A. (1906). The Knights of England. Vol. 2. London: Sherratt & Hughes. p. 80.
  5. Hooker, John (1587). "The Supplie of the Irish Chronicles extended to this present yeare of our Lord 1586, and the 28 of the reigne of queene Elisabeth". In Holinshed, Raphael (ed.). The First and Second Volumes of Chronicles (2nd ed.). London. p. 170.
  6. Brewer, J. S.; Bullen, William, eds. (1867). Calendar of the Carew Manuscripts preserved in the Archiepiscopal Library at Lambeth. Vol. 1. London: Longmans. pp. xiv, xvi–xviii.
  7. Harris, Oliver D. (2014). "The generations of Adam: the monument of Sir Gawen Carew in Exeter Cathedral". Church Monuments. 29: 40–71 (47, 56–7, 65).
  8. "VERNEY". tudorplace.com.ar. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
  9. Burke, Bernard, "Genealogical History of the Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages of the British Empire", London, 1866, p.554
  10. Harris, "Generations of Adam". An inscription added in 1857 suggests that the lady is Sir Gawen's second wife, Mary née Wotton (c.1500–1558), widow of Sir Henry Guildford (1489–1532), but this is an error.
  11. Harris, Oliver (2014). "A Lady of the Bedchamber to Elizabeth I: Elizabeth, Lady Carew". The Friends of Exeter Cathedral Annual Report. Exeter. 84: 28–31.
  12. Harris, "Generations of Adam", p. 40.
  13. Harris, "Generations of Adam", p. 63.
  14. Harris, "Generations of Adam", pp. 59, 65.
  15. Erskine, Audrey; Hope, Vyvyan; Lloyd, John (1988). Exeter Cathedral: A Short History and Description. Exeter: Exeter Cathedral. p. 106. ISBN   0-9503320-4-6.
  16. Harris, "Generations of Adam", pp. 57, 65.
  17. Harris, "Generations of Adam", pp. 57–62.