Carew, George, Earl of Totnes (1555 -1630)

Sir George Carew was the son of George Carew, Dean of Windsor, and Anne, daughter of Sir Nicholas Harvey. He was educated at Broadgates Hall, Oxford, where he was admitted in 1572, and created M.A. 17 September 1589. He was knighted by Sir John Perrot in Christ Church, Dublin 24 February 1585. A professional soldier, he distinguished himself particularly in Ireland where he served as Master of the Ordnance 1587 1593, and President of Munster 1600 1608. He was elected Member of the Irish Parliament for Queensborough 1597 1598, and Member for Hastings in the English Parliament from 1604. He was created Baron Carew of Clopton House, near Stratford on Avon, 4 November 1605, and Earl of Totnes 7 February 1626. He married Joyce Clopton of Clopton House, Warwickshire in 1580, by whom he had no issue. Following a visit to Ireland in 1610 to report on prospects for a settlement and plantation of Ulster, he recommended the creation of new boroughs to ensure a Protestant majority in the forthcoming parliament, a suggestion that was successfully adopted in 1613. Carew was a close friend of Sir Walter Raleigh, and unsuccessfully pleaded for his life in 1618. Of antiquarian tastes, he was particularly interested in Irish history and genealogy. He bequeathed his books and manuscripts to Sir Thomas Stafford from whom they passed to Archbishop Laud. Some manuscripts Laud placed in the Lambeth Palace Library, others he gave to the Bodleian Library, in Oxford.