Gawen Carew MP (abt. 1503 - bef. 1585)

Born about 1503 in Luppitt, Devon, England [uncertain]

Ancestors

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Biography

Born about 1503 probably at Mohuns Ottery, Luppitt, Devon. Gawen was the fourth son of Sir Edmund Carew of Mohuns Ottery and his wife, Katherine Huddesfield.^[1]

By license granted on the 28th of January 1531 he married Anne (Brandon) Shilston, widow of Sir John Shilston and sister of the duke of Suffolk. She was a daughter of William Brandon and his wife, Elizabeth Bruyn. ^[1] The marriage was childless. ^[1]

1532-38 Brandon v Carew.^[2]

Plaintiffs: Dame Katherine Brandon, late the wife of Robert Brandon, knight, and formerly of John Carew of Haccomb, esquire.

Defendants: Gawen Carew (Caro), gentleman, and Dame Anne, his wife, late the wife of John Shelston, knight.

Subject: Distresses levied on complainant's tenants of her manor of Leigham in Egg Buckland (Legham Bosom) to satisfy a rent charge thereon, secured to the said John Shelston and Anne, his wife, by a bond subsequently cancelled.

It is not known when Anne died but by July 1540 Gawen had married Mary Wotton, daughter of Robert Wotton and his wife, Anne Belknap and widow of Sir Henry Guildford. No children were born of this marriage either. ^[1]

He was first returned to Parliament as member for Devon probably in 1542 but certainly in 1545 but still found himself incarcerated in the Tower implicated in Thomas Wyatt's rebellion.^[1]

With the accession of Elizabeth, Gawen was returned as member for Plympton Erle in 1559. By December 1565 he had married Elizabeth Norwiche, daughter of Sir John Norwiche, but again there were no children. ^[1]

He died in 1585, his will being proved on 30 June.^[1]

He was buried in Exeter Cathedral, 22 April, 1584. His funeral sermon was preached by John Chardon, afterwards Bishop of Down and Connor, in Ireland.

Research Notes

1570 Lease for lives^[3]

1. Nicholas Aisheford of Ashford, esq. and Roger his son
2. Sir Gawen Carew, Elizabeth his wife and Peter their son

Memorial

The large tomb of two stories in the Chapel of St. Mary Magdalen, in the Cathedral at Exeter, commemorates Walter Dowrish and wife Mary Carew, whose effigies are in the upper compartment, and the single cross-legged figure below, his nephew, Sir Peter Carew, elder brother of George Carew. ^[4]The inscriptions record : —

WALTER DOWRICH OF DOWRICH, ESQ.,

MARRIED THE ONLY SISTER OF THIS SIR PETER CAREW UNDER-FIGURED,

ELDER BROTHER TO THE LORD CAREW, BARON OF CLOPTON,

WHICH SIR PETER CAREW, KNYGHT, WAS SLAYNE IN IRELAND.

To which was added on its restoration : —

THIS MONUMENT ERECTED A.D. 1589,

IN MEMORY OF SIR GAWEN CAREW AND MARY HIS WIFE,

AND OF HIS NEPHEW SIR PETER, ELDEST SON OF GEORGE CAREW, D.D.,

(SOME TIME DEAN OF THIS CATHEDRAL CHURCH,)

ONLY BROTHER OF GEORGE CAREW, BARON OF CLOPTON AND EARL OF TOTNES,

WAS RESTORED BY MEMBERS OF THE FAMILY A.D. 1857.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6} CAREW, Gawain (c.1503-85), of Exeter and Wood, Devon and London. Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558, ed. S.T. Bindoff, 1982 Available from Boydell and Brewer. Author: A. D.K. Hawkyard
2. ↑ National Archives Ref C 1/696/20
3. ↑ National Archives Ref 1926 B/W/L/15/10
4. ↑ Memorials of the west, historical and descriptive by Rogers, William Henry Hamilton, b. 1828 Publication date 1888 Page 304