Life
1555-1629; son of George Carew (d.1583); ed. Broadgates Hall, Oxford;
accompanied Sir Peter Carew (d.1757) to Ireland, 1574; commanded Leighlin
Castle, 1576; repulsed Rory Oge [Óg] O’More, 1577; navy captain,
1578; commanded royal troops in Ireland, 1579-80; knighted, 1586; report
on Irish affairs to Elizabeth, 1586; Master of Ordnance in Ireland, 1588-92;
lieut. gen. of ordnance of England, 1592; accompanied expeditions to Cadiz,
1596, and to the Azores, 1597; official envoy to France, 1598; treasurer
of war in Ireland, 1599; Lord Justice of Ireland, 1599; president of Munster,
1600-93; assisted Mountjoy in suppressing of Tyrone’s rebellion;
MP for Hastings, 1604; created Baron Carew, 1605; master-gen. of ordnance,
1608-17; Gov. of Guernsey, 1610-21; visited Ireland, 1610; created Earl
of Totnes, 1626; Carew’s papers provided the basis for Pacata
Hibernia, by Thomas Stafford; portions of his large collections for
Irish history are held in the Lambeth and Bodleian libraries; a handful
of found their way into the TCD Library (Dublin Univ.); issued Survey
of Kerry and Desmond (1617); there is a biographical essay by Richard
Bagwell; Carew figures in Standish O’Grady’s novel Ulrick
the Ready (1899), where he contrives the poisoning O’Donnell
at Simancas through an Anglo-Irishman called Burke (though history records
that O’Donnell was not poisoned). ODNB
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Works
Survey of Kerry and Desmond (1617) [infra].
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References
Roy Foster, Modern Ireland (London: Allen Lane 1988), p.36,
gives bio-data: 1555-1629; left Oxford to join Irish army, 1574; chosen
to describe difficulties of Irish govt. to Queen, 1587; Master of Irish
Ordnance, 1588-92; President of Munster, 1600; lent support to Mountjoy
against O’Neill, and reported on possible resettling of Ulster, 1609-10;
reported on reform of Irish army and revenue, 1611; collated massive collection
of Irish papers which inspired Stafford’s Pacata Hibernia (1632).
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Quotations
Survey of Kerry and Desmond (1617)
contains remarks on the Irish whom he observed ‘deriding and scoffing
at such as lived civilly and after the English manner.’ (Quoted in
Estyn Evans, Irish Folk Ways, 1957, p.4.)
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Notes
J. S. Brewer, ed., Calendar of the Carew Manuscripts, 6
vols. (PRO 1867; rep. 1974), contains [inter alia], a reprint of the Book
of Howth (Volume V), held in Dublin Castle and formerly acquired by
Thomas Stafford on the death of George Carew, Earl of Totnes; the Book
contains an English version of the dialogue between Ossian and Patrick,
along with several ‘descriptions’ of Ireland, among them a passage
treating of the manner in which Irish women urinate standing and the men
urinate sitting [Copy in Newberry Library; noticed by David Gardiner,
Loyola Univ.]
Kith & Kin: Sir Peter Carew arrived in Munster to make land claims in the 1568; engaged in civil war with the Butlers; recalled and appt. ; constable in the Tower, 1572; returned to Ireland, 1574. (Correction and details supplied by Thomas Herron, Hampden-Sydney College, Hampden-Sydney, VA 23943 USA.)
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