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). DNB
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Works
Survey of Kerry and Desmond (1617) [infra].
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Criticism
Roy Foster, Modern Ireland (London: Allen Lane 1988), p.36.
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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 to EIRData by Thomas Herron, Hampden-Sydney College, Hampden-Sydney, VA 23943 USA.)
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)