The Cary family (also Carey) 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 (died 1395) purchased the Manor of Clovelly in the 14th centuryVivian, 1895 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.
Origins Sir John Cary (died 1395), 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 (1386-8) 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.Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, p.150, pedigree of Cary; See also biography of his son Sir Robert Cary in History of Parliament 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 BrianVivian, p.150, the Heraldic Visitation states she was a co-heiress of her father, which appears unlikely as he is known to have had a son and heir Guy de Bryan, 1st Baron Bryan, KG (died 1390) (died 1349) (alias de Brienne), 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 (died 1390). He married Margaret Holleway, daughter and heiress of Robert Holleway.
Sir John Cary's eldest son, Sir Robert Cary (died c. 1431) of Cockington, Devon, was 12 times MP for Devon.History of Parliament biography of Cary, Robert (d.c.1431), of Cockington, Devon At some time after 1350Risdon, p.148, regnal year 24 king Edward III 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 (1399–1413).Pole, p.278 He was an esquire in the households of King Richard II (1377–1399) and of the latter's half-brother John Holland, 1st Duke of Exeter (c. 1352 – 1400). He married as his first wife Margaret Courtenay, a daughter of Sir Philip Courtenay (1340–1406), of Powderham, Devon, a younger son of Hugh Courtenay, 2nd Earl of Devon (1303–1377) by his wife Margaret de Bohun (died 1391), daughter and heiress of Humphrey de Bohun, 4th Earl of Hereford (1298–1322) by his wife Elizabeth Plantagenet, a daughter of King Edward I. Her eldest brother was Richard Courtenay (died 1415), Bishop of Norwich, a close friend and ally of Henry of Monmouth, later King Henry V (1413–1422), who did much to restore Robert Cary to royal favour after his father's attainder.HoP biography of Robert CaryVivian, pp.244,246, pedigree of Courtenay; p.150, pedigree of Cary, in which wife given incorrectly as Elizabeth Courtenay (footnote 6)
Sir Robert Cary's son by his first wife, his eldest son and heir, Sir Philip Cary (died 1437), of CockingtonRoskell History of Parliament; Vivian, apparently incorrectly, gives him as the son of his father's 2nd wife Jane Hankford was MP for Devon in 1433. He married Christiana de Orchard (died 1472), daughter and heiress of William de Orchard of Orchard (later Orchard Portman), near Taunton in Somerset.
Sir Philip's son and heir, Sir William Cary (1437–1471), of Cockington, was beheaded after the defeat of the Lancastrians at the Battle of Tewkesbury in 1471.Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, p.150, pedigree of Cary 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 (died 1540). He married twice: Firstly to Elizabeth Poulett, a daughter of Sir William Poulett of Hinton St George, Somerset (ancestor of Earl Poulett), by whom he had a son and heir: Robert Cary (died 1540), of Cockington and Clovelly (whose descendants continued to occupy the Manor of Clovelly). Secondly he married Anna (or Alice) Fulford, a daughter of Sir Baldwin Fulford (died 1476) of Fulford, Devon, by whom he had a son: Thomas Cary of Chilton Foliat.
Thomas Cary of Chilton Foliat, above, married Margaret Spencer (1472–1536), (or Eleanor SpencerVivian, p.150, pedigree of Cary), one of the two daughters and co-heiresses of Sir Robert Spencer (d. circa 1510), "of Spencer Combe", in the parish of Crediton in Devon, by his wife Eleanor Beaufort (1431–1501), daughter of Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset (1406–1455), KG. By Margaret Spencer he had two sons: Sir John Cary (1491–1552) of Plashey, eldest son, ancestor to the Cary Viscounts Falkland,Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, pp.150, 154-6, pedigree of Cary 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.Vivian, pp.150, 154-6, pedigree of Cary
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 (sister of Thomas Knyvet, 1st Baron Knyvet), and had 9 children, including Sir Philip Cary and Henry Cary, 1st Viscount Falkland, whose descendants still hold the title today.
Barons Hunsdon
William Carey (c. 1500-22 June 1528), 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 (or because of Mary's affair, it has been suggested that these may have been instead Henry VIII's biological children (see Issue of Mary Boleyn). The veracity of this claim is the subject of historical debate.): Catherine Carey (c. 1524 – 15 January 1568). Maid of Honour to Anne of Cleves and Catherine Howard. She was married to the Puritan Sir Francis Knollys, Knight of the Garter. She was later lady-in-waiting to her cousin, Elizabeth I. One of her daughters, Lettice Knollys, became the second wife of Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, the favourite of Elizabeth I. Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon (4 March 1526 – 23 July 1596). He was ennobled by Queen Elizabeth I just after her coronation and created Knight of the Garter in 1561. When he was dying, Elizabeth offered him the Boleyn family title, Earl of Ormonde, which he had long sought, but he refused the honour. A younger son of Henry's was Robert Carey, 1st Earl of Monmouth who was a courtier to James I and Charles I. He served on diplomatic missions abroad in his younger years.
Cary of Clovelly
Robert Cary (died 1540) of Cockington and Clovelly married three times:Vivian, p.150 Firstly to Jane Carew, daughter of Nicholas Carew, Baron Carew (1424–1471),Vivian, p.135, pedigree of Carew of Mohuns Ottery, Luppitt, Devon, by whom he had two sons: John Cary (born 1502), eldest son and heir, who inherited the manor of Cary. Thomas Cary (died 1567), 2nd son, who inherited Cockington. Secondly to Ames Hody (alias Huddye), daughter of Sir William Hody,"John" Hody, per Vivian, p.150. he was the son of Sir John Hody (died 1441) (see History of Parliament biography of John Hody ) Chief Justice of the King’s Bench Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer 1486–1512, by whom he had a son: William Cary (died 1550) of Ladford Thirdly to Margaret Fulkeram (died 1547), daughter and heiress of William Fulkeram of Dartmouth, Devon. A branch of the Fulkeram family (alias Fookeray, Fokeray, etc.,) were lords of the manor of Buckland Baron (Buckland-in-the-Moor) in Haytor Hundred.Pole, Sir William (died 1635), Collections Towards a Description of the County of Devon, Sir John-William de la Pole (ed.), London, 1791, pp.249, 270 by Margaret Fulkeram he had issue: Robert Cary (died 1586) of Clovelly (4th son).
Robert Cary (died 1586) of Clovelly, 4th son of his father, by his 3rd wife. He was given Clovelly by his father.Pole, p.371 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.Hawkyard, A.D.K., biography of Carey, Robert (c.1515-87), of Clovelly and Exeter, Devon, published in History of Parliament: House of Commons 1509-1558, ed. S.T. Bindoff, 1982 He was a magistrate and along with several other members of the Devonshire gentry then serving as magistrates he died of jail 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, 1586Griggs, p.4 ("Robert Cary, Esquire, died in the year of Our Lord 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 gulesPole, p.483 Fulkeray (Fulkeram, for his father) and Cary impaling Sable, three swords pilewise points in base proper and hilts or (Poulett, for his grandfather). On the base of the west side is a similar escutcheon showing his own arms of Cary (of four quarters, 1st: Cary; 2nd: Or, three piles in point azure (Bryan);Pole, p.473 3rd: Gules, a fess between three crescents argent (Holleway);Pole, p.488 4th: A chevron (unknown, possibly Hankford: Sable, a chevron barry nebuly argent and gulesPole, p.486; Griggs, p.4, states the chevron is for Fulford, yet his grandfather's 2nd wife Anna/Alice Fulford, daughter of Sir Baldwin Fulford, was not an heiress (she had a brother) and thus the Fulford arms would not be quartered by the Cary family, according to the laws of heraldry) impaling Gules, a chevron or between three millets hauriant argent (MillitonPole, p.493; A "millet" is a type of fish, possibly a mullet)
George Cary (1543–1601), eldest son and heir of Robert Cary (died 1586), 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".Risdon, p.241 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: Firstly to Christiana Stretchley, daughter and heiress of William Stretchley of Ermington in Devon and widow of Sir Christopher Chudleigh (1528–1570)Vivian, p.189, pedigree of Chudleigh of Ashton, by whom he had issue including: William Cary (1576–1652) of Clovelly, JP, eldest son and heir. Secondly to Elizabeth Bampfield, eldest daughter of Richard Bampfield (1526–1594) of Poltimore, Devon, Sheriff of Devon in 1576;Vivian, p.39, pedigree of bampfield without issue. Thirdly in 1586 to Catherine Russell (died 1632), of Sussex, by whom he had 3 sons and 3 daughters.