[Sir] George Carew

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;

appt. 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

[ top ]

Works
Survey of Kerry and Desmond (1617) [infra].

[ top ]

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).

[ top ]

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.)

[ top ]

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.)

[ top ]