Thomas Carew (politician, around 1527)

Thomas Carew (* 1526 or 1527; † February 12, 1564 ) was an English politician who was elected twice as a member of the House of Commons .

Origin and education

Thomas Carew came from the Carew family who had acquired Antony in Cornwall at the end of the 15th century . He was the eldest son of Sir Wymond Carew and his wife Martha Denny. On the advice of his uncle Anthony Denny , Carew studied from September 1548 at St John's College , Cambridge. His father died in August 1549, whereupon Carew broke off his studies and, with a special permit , learned law at the Inner Temple in London from February 10, 1550 . He then returned to Cornwall and took over the management of his inheritance, which included Antony's lands at Crediton in Devon and the Hackney estate in Middlesex .

Activity as a politician

After September 5, 1554, Carew married Elizabeth Edgecombe, a daughter of Richard Edgecombe . Under the influence of his father-in-law, who was a steward of Plymouth , Carew was elected MP for Plymouth in the 1555 general election. In the House of Commons he was not like John Young , the second MP from Plymouth, of the opposition to the government under Sir Anthony Kingston . In the general election of 1558 he apparently did not run, but in early 1563 he was elected as a member of Parliament for the Saltash borough not far from Antony . Apparently, however, he did not attend the sessions of the January to April 1563 parliament.

Carew's father had left considerable debts to the Crown. Probably because of this, Carew sold Hackney and most of the land his father had acquired outside of Devon and Cornwall. For this he acquired the Sheviock estate, which is located near Antony, from Sir Walter Mildmay . From 1558 he served as Vogt of the Duchy of Cornwall for Fordington in Dorset.

Family and offspring

From his marriage to Elizabeth Edgecombe, Carew had three sons and one daughter, including:

• Richard
• George

After his untimely death, his widow and her brother Peter Edgcumbe took over the guardianship of his underage heir Richard.

Web links

• Roger Virgoe: CAREW, Thomas (1526 / 27-64), of Antony, Cornw. and St. Giles in the Fields, Mdx. (History of Parliament Online, Ref Volumes: 1509–1558)
• NM Fuidge: CAREW, Thomas (c.1527-64), of Antony, Cornw. and St. Giles-in-the-Fields, Mdx. (History of Parliament Online, Ref Volumes: 1558–1603)