Cary family


The Cary family is an English aristocratic family with a branch in Ireland. The earliest known ancestor of the family is Sir Adam de Kari who was living in 1198. Sir John Cary purchased the Manor of Clovelly in the 14th century and established the family's status as members of the landed gentry. Various branches of the family were ennobled in the late 16th and early 17th centuries as Baron Hunsdon and Viscount Falkland.
''' and Cockington, the latter both purchased by Sir John Cary, Chief Baron of the Exchequer and Member of Parliament for Devon

Origins

Sir John Cary, who purchased the manor of Clovelly, but probably never lived there and certainly died in exile in Ireland. He was a judge who rose to the position of Chief Baron of the Exchequer and served twice as Member of Parliament for Devon, on both occasions together with his brother Sir William Cary, in 1363/4 and 1368/9. He was a son of Sir John Cary, Knight, by his second wife Jane de Brian, a daughter and co-heiress of Sir Guy de Brian , of Walwyn's Castle in Pembrokeshire and Torr Bryan, on the south coast of Devon, and sister of Guy de Bryan, 1st Baron Bryan, KG. He married Margaret Holleway, daughter and heiress of Robert Holleway.
believed to represent Sir William Cary, lord of the manors of Clovelly and Cockington, Devon.
Sir John Cary's eldest son, Sir Robert Cary of Cockington, Devon, was 12 times MP for Devon. At some time after 1350 the Cary family acquired the manor of Cockington, in Devon, which they made their principal seat. Certainly according to Pole, Robert Cary held Cockington during the reign of King Henry IV. He was an esquire in the households of King Richard II and of the latter's half-brother John Holland, 1st Duke of Exeter. He married as his first wife Margaret Courtenay, a daughter of Sir Philip Courtenay, of Powderham, Devon, a younger son of Hugh Courtenay, 2nd Earl of Devon by his wife Margaret de Bohun, daughter and heiress of Humphrey de Bohun, 4th Earl of Hereford by his wife Elizabeth Plantagenet, a daughter of King Edward I. Her eldest brother was Richard Courtenay, Bishop of Norwich, a close friend and ally of Henry of Monmouth, later King Henry V, who did much to restore Robert Cary to royal favour after his father's attainder.
, c. 1561-63. Private collection, on loan to the Globe Theatre.
Sir Robert Cary's son by his first wife, his eldest son and heir, Sir Philip Cary, of Cockington was MP for Devon in 1433. He married Christiana de Orchard, daughter and heiress of William de Orchard of Orchard, near Taunton in Somerset.
Sir Philip's son and heir, Sir William Cary, of Cockington, was beheaded after the defeat of the Lancastrians at the Battle of Tewkesbury in 1471. He is believed to be represented by a monumental brass of a knight, without surviving identifying inscription, set into a slate ledger stone on the floor of the chancel of All Saints Church, Clovelly, next to a smaller brass, in similar style, of his son and heir Robert Cary. He married twice:
Thomas Cary of Chilton Foliat, above, married Margaret Spencer,, one of the two daughters and co-heiresses of Sir Robert Spencer, "of Spencer Combe", in the parish of Crediton in Devon, by his wife Eleanor Beaufort, daughter of Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset, KG. By Margaret Spencer he had two sons: Sir John Cary of Plashey, eldest son, ancestor to the Cary Viscounts Falkland, and William Cary, the first husband of Mary Boleyn, sister of Queen Anne Boleyn, and ancestor to the Cary Barons Hunsdon, Barons Cary of Leppington, Earls of Monmouth, Viscounts Rochford and Earls of Dover.

Viscounts Falkland

Sir John Cary of Plashley, the eldest son of Thomas Cary of Chilton Foliat and his wife Margaret Spencer, was one of King Henry VIII's courtiers. He married Joyce Denny, a daughter of Sir Edmund Denny, and had two sons: Sir Edward Cary and Sir Wymond Cary.
Sir Edward Cary, above, married Katherine Knyvett, and had 9 children, including Sir Philip Cary and Henry Cary, 1st Viscount Falkland, whose descendants still hold the title today.

Barons Hunsdon

, younger son of Thomas Cary of Chilton Foliat and his wife Margaret Spencer, was a favourite courtier of King Henry VIII. His wife, Mary Boleyn, is known to history as a mistress of King Henry VIII and the sister of Henry's second wife, Anne Boleyn. He and Mary had two children :

Cary of Clovelly

Robert Cary of Cockington and Clovelly married three times:
Robert Cary of Clovelly, 4th son of his father, by his 3rd wife. He was given Clovelly by his father. He was the first Cary to be seated exclusively at Clovelly, the manors of Cary and Cockington having been inherited by his half-brothers. He was Member of Parliament for Barnstaple, Devon, in October 1553 and served as Sheriff of Devon in 1555–56. He served as Recorder of Barnstaple after 1560. He was a magistrate and along with several other members of the Devonshire gentry then serving as magistrates he died of gaol fever at the Black Assize of Exeter 1586. He married Margaret Milliton, daughter of John Milliton and widow of John Giffard of Yeo in the parish of Alwington, North Devon. His large monument, with strapwork decoration, survives against the south wall of the chancel of All Saints Church, Clovelly. Along the full length of the cornice is inscribed in gilt capitals: Robertus Carius, Armiger, 1586. On the base of the north side are shown two relief sculpted heraldic escutcheons, showing Cary impaling Chequy argent and sable, a fess vairy argent and gules and Cary impaling Sable, three swords pilewise points in base proper and hilts or. On the base of the west side is a similar escutcheon showing his own arms of Cary ; 3rd: Gules, a fess between three crescents argent ; 4th: A chevron impaling Gules, a chevron or between three millets hauriant argent
George Cary, eldest son and heir of Robert Cary, was Sheriff of Devon in 1587. He constructed at Clovelly a harbour wall, surviving today, described by Risdon as "a pile to resist the inrushing of the sea's violent breach, that ships and boats may with the more safety harbour there". Clovelly's main export product was herring fish, which formerly appeared at certain times of the year in huge shoals, close off-shore in the shallow waters of the Bristol Channel, and such a harbour wall was a great benefit to the village fishermen, tenants of the Cary lords of the manor. He married three times:
William Cary, son and heir of George Cary, was Justice of the Peace for Devon, MP for Mitchell, Cornwall, in 1604, eldest son and heir by his father's first wife. He is sometimes said to be the model for Will Cary featured in Westward Ho!, the 1855 novel by Charles Kingsley, who appears in the narrative concerning the Spanish Armada in 1588, although he would have been a boy aged just 12 at the time. However the "daring foreign exploits attributed to him are entirely fictional". Kingsley spent much of his childhood at Clovelly as his father was Rev. Charles Kingsley, Curate of Clovelly 1826-1832 and Rector 1832-1836. Indeed the author's small brass monumental tablet is affixed to the wall of the church under the mural monument of Sir Robert Cary, eldest son of William Cary.
He married three times:
Sir Robert Cary, eldest son and heir of William Cary, was a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber to King Charles II. He died unmarried and without children. His mural monument survives in Clovelly Church, erected by his younger brother and heir George Cary and inscribed as follows:
Rev. George Cary, the second son of William Cary, was a Professor of Divinity, Dean of Exeter and Rector of Shobrooke in Devon. He was one of the Worthies of Devon of John Prince. He married Anne Hancock, daughter of William Hancock, lord of the manor of Combe Martin, Devon, by whom he had numerous children. He was educated at Exeter Grammar School and in 1628 entered Queens College, Oxford but later moved to Exeter College, Oxford, much frequented by Devonians. His first clerical appointment was by his father as Rector of Clovelly. Following the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660, he was appointed Chaplain in Ordinary to King Charles II, after which he received the honour of a Doctorate in Divinity from Oxford University. At the bequest of the Lord Chamberlain he preached a Lent sermon before the king, for which was much thanked by the Archbishop of Canterbury. During most of his career he lived about 44 miles south-east of Clovelly, at Exeter, and at Shobrooke, near Crediton, 9 miles to the north-west of Exeter. Indeed it appears that until about 1702 Clovelly was occupied by his second cousins, the three brothers John Cary, George Cary and Anthony Cary, sons of Robert Cary of Yeo Vale, Alwington, near Clovelly. He rebuilt the rectory house at Shobrooke, which he found in a dilapidated state and made it "a commodious and gentile dwelling". He also rebuilt the "ruinous,...filthy and loathsome" Dean's House in Exeter, which during the Civil War had been let to negligent tenants by the See of Exeter, and "in a short time so well repaired, so thoroughly cleansed and so richly furnished this house that it became a fit receptacle for princes". As the Emperor Augustus with the City of Rome, so did Dean Cary with the Dean's House in Exeter "found it ruines but he left it a palace", as Prince suggests. Indeed King Charles II stayed there on the night of 23 July 1670, having visited the newly built Citadel in Plymouth. It was also the chosen abode of Christopher Monck, 2nd Duke of Albemarle, Lord lieutenant of Devon, for three weeks in 1675 and again during the Monmouth Rebellion. He was a liberal benefactor in assisting the Corporation of Exeter in the completion in 1699 of the cutting of a leat between Exeter Quay and Topsham, which fed into a pool which could shelter 100 ships. He twice refused offers of the Bishopric of Exeter made by King Charles II, on vacancies arising in 1666 and 1676. The reason for his first refusal, or profession of Nolo Episcopari, is unknown, but he refused the second time due to age and infirmity which would prevent him attending Parliament as would be required. He died at Shobrooke but was buried in Cloveely Church. His mural monument survives in Clovelly Church, erected by his eldest son Sir George Cary, the armorials of the latter's two wives appearing on the top of the monument as follows: dexter: Azure, a chevron between three mullets pierced or ; sinister: Or, a lion reguardant sable langued gules. The Latin inscription is as follows:
Sir George Cary, eldest son and heir of Rev. George Cary, was knighted by King Charles II during his father's lifetime and in 1681 served as Member of Parliament for Okehampton, Devon, and occupied the honourable position of Recorder of Okehampton. He married twice as follows, but left no children:
William Cary, younger son of Rev. George Cary, was twice Member of Parliament for Okehampton in Devon 1685-1687 and 1689-1695 and also for Launceston in Cornwall 1695-1710. His mural monument survives in Clovelly Church. In 1704 he obtained a private Act of Parliament to allow him to sell entailed lands in Somerset and to re-settle his Devon estates in order to pay debts and provide incomes for his younger children. He was suffering financial difficulties and applied to Robert Harley for a lucrative government post to restore his finances:
He married twice:

George Cary , a grandson of Robert Cary, was one of the first aldermen of the city of Derry in 1613 and was appointed, in the same year, Recorder of Derry. He was Member of Parliament for County Londonderry in the Parliament of Ireland from 1615-1640. He married Jane Beresford, sister of Sir Tristram Beresford, 1st Baronet, in 1615, with whom he had many children. His daughter, Elizabeth, married George Hart, a son of Captain Henry Hart, with whom she was the progenitor of the Hart family of Kilderry House, Glenalla House and Carrablagh House in Donegal.
The Cary family remained landlords in Inishowen until losing their property after the passage of the Irish Land Act in 1882. The Anglo-Irish writer Joyce Cary was a descendant of this branch of the Cary family.