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CAREW, Sir William, 5th Bt. (1689-1744), of Antony, Cornw.
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Family and Education
bap. 24 Jan. 1689, 2nd s. of Sir John Carew, 3rd Bt., M.P., by Mary, da. of Sir William Morice, 1st Bt. M.P., of Werrington, Devon. educ. Exeter, Oxf. 1707. m. 31 Dec. 1713, Lady Anne Coventry, da. of Gilbert, 4th Earl of Coventry, 1s. suc. bro. c.1704.
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Biography
In 1715 Carew was returned as a Tory for Cornwall, which his father, grandfather and great-grandfather had also represented. Arrested on suspicion of high treason in 1715, he was granted bail in February 1716.1 According to a French envoy, who met the Jacobite leaders in 1743,
feu M. Craggs, secrétaire d’état, qui aimoit fort son maître et un peu sa patrie, propose en 1719 aux principaux des Toris, dont M. le chevr Carew député pour la province de Cornwall est encore en vie, que s’ils vouloient quitter le chevr de St. Georges, et entreprendre les affaires de son maître, il se croiyoit obligé de se porter a leur confier l’administration, parce que par leur crédit dans la nation ils pouvoient faire tout d’une manière conforme aux règles de la constitution, ce que les Whigs n’étoient point en état de faire sans corruption et sans des mesures violentes et arbitraires ... La proposition ne fut pas acceptée.2
Included in a list of probable supporters sent to the Pretender in 1721, he was in touch with Atterbury’s agents in 1722.3 He is mentioned in the 7th report of the South Sea inquiry as having accepted £1,000 stock at 300 on 25 Mar. 1720 without paying for it.4 He stood unsuccessfully for Saltash in 1722, but was returned for the county, which he continued to represent unopposed till his death. His only reported speech was against the Quakers’ tithe bill of 3 May 1736. He took part in the subscription to regain some of the Cornish boroughs from the Administration in 1741.5 He was involved in the plans for a French landing to restore the Stuarts in the spring of 1744, figuring in a list of ‘distinguished’ supporters sent to the French in 1743, when the plan for the landing was communicated to him.6 He died 8 Mar. 1744.
