Thomas Carew (politician, 1624)

Sir Thomas Carew (* uncertain: baptized July 19, 1624 ; † July 25, 1681 ) was an English politician who was elected three times as a member of the House of Commons .

Origin and education

Thomas Carew came from the Carew family of Antony , a gentry family from Cornwall . He was the second son of Richard Carew, 1st Baronet from his second marriage to Grace Rolle . His siblings included his brother John Carew and half-brother Alexander Carew , who inherited their father in 1643 but was executed as a traitor during the English Civil War . From 1641 Carew learned law in the Inner Temple .

Political career

Carew was too young to take part in the fighting of the Civil War and became a barrister . Towards the end of the Commonwealth he became a Member of Parliament for Callington , and when the members of the House of Commons were re-elected in 1660, he ran successfully for Borough Mitchell , Cornwall, on May 6, 1660 . Although his older brother John was convicted and executed as regicide in October 1660 , Carew supported the policies of Charles II and was rewarded with land holdings in Bowhill and Higher Barley near Exeter , which had belonged to previously expropriated opponents of the king. Through his marriage to Elizabeth Cupper, the daughter of a Barley merchant , he acquired additional properties in the Exeter area. His numerous offices from 1662 included the office of Justice of the Peace in Devon . Carew earned a high reputation in Mitchell and Exeter. On July 21, 1671 he was knighted . In 1676 he was elected recorder of Exeter, to 1676 he was Deputy Lieutenant of Devon. As a recorder, he interrogated General John Lambert , who was in custody and was suspected of belonging to an alleged papist conspiracy . In the general election in February 1679 Carew ran unsuccessfully for Exeter, but in the election in February 1681 he was elected as an MP for Exeter as an opponent of the Exclusion Bill . He died five months later and was buried at St Thomas the Apostle's Church in Exeter.

Family and offspring

After August 26, 1661, Carew had married Elizabeth Cupper, a daughter of John Cupper. With her he had five sons and three daughters, including:

• Thomas Carew (1664-1705)
• Richard Carew
• Henry Carew

Web links

• MW Helms, JS Crossette: CAREW, Thomas I (1624-81), of the Inner Temple and Barley, no. Exeter, Devon. (History of Parliament Online, Ref Volumes: 1660-1690)