Family and Education

6th s. of Henry Carey†, 1st Baron Hunsdon, by Anne, da. of Sir Thomas Morgan of Arkestone, Herefs.; bro. of Sir George, Henry, John, Robert and William. educ. G. Inn 1580. m. (1) Mary, da. and h. of Christopher Coker of Croft, Devon, 3s. 2 or 3da.; (2) c.1596, Elizabeth (d.1630), da. and coh. of John Neville, 4th Lord Latimer, wid. of John Danvers of Dauntsey, Wilts.; (3) Judith, da. of Laurence Humphrey of Winchester, Hants, wid. of ?Thomas Bury of Culhampton and Sir George Rivers of Chafford, Kent. Kntd. 1586.3

Offices Held

Esquire of the body by 1598; j.p.q. Northants. 1592, Bucks., Mdx., Glos., Wilts., Yorks. (W. Riding) 1598.4

Biography

Carey served in the Netherlands as a soldier under Leicester, by whom he was knighted. He entered Parliament under the auspices of his eldest brother Sir George, who nominated him at his recently enfranchised borough of Newport. Abroad when the next election was held, he sat for Newport again in 1589. He obtained his seat at Oxford through his father’s recent appointment as high steward, and as Member for Oxford he may have attended the committee on brewers on 3 Apr. 1593. In 1597 he came in on his family’s interest at Buckingham, and during this Parliament was named to the large committee for the bill on armour and weapons (8 Nov.). His county seat, obtained at the instance of the Earl of Hertford, the new lord lieutenant, was due to his standing in that county through his marriage to the widow of Sir John Danvers. This marriage is said by John Aubrey to have taken place so as to give Lady Danvers enough influence at court to obtain a pardon for her two sons accused of murder. The Danvers family had estates in Cornwall, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Wiltshire, to which Lady Danvers added Danby castle and large estates in Yorkshire by her marriage settlement. As knight for Wiltshire he may have attended committees concerning clothworkers (18 Nov.), order of business (3 Nov.) and monopolies (23 Nov.). By 26 Aug. 1637 when he made his will, `sick in body’, Carey was living at Culham. He was buried there a few weeks later, appointing his third wife sole executrix.5

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: Patricia Hyde

Notes

• 1. Folger V. b. 298.
• 2. Did not serve for the full duration of the Parliament.
• 3. Par. Colls. Oxon. (Oxon. Rec. Soc. ii), 108; Vis. Herts. (Harl. Soc. xxii), 136; Wilts. Colls. of John Aubrey (Wilts. Arch. and Nat. Hist. Soc.), 216; Lansd. 94, f. 94.
• 4. LC2/4/4; Index 4208, pp. 79, 286.
• 5. CSP For. 1585-6, p. 700; 1586-7, pp. 327, 386, 390; July-Dec. 1588, p. 203; Lansd. 84, f. 11; R. C. Strong and J. A. Van Dorsten, Leicester’s Triumph , 112; D’Ewes, 514, 553, 624, 642, 649; VCH Wilts. iv. 124; Thynne mss 7, f. 212; Aubrey, Brief Lives, ed. Clark, i. 193; PCC 17 Lee; Par. Colls. Oxon. loc. cit.