Edward Cary (died 1618)

Edward Cary or Carey or Carye (died 1618) was an English courtier and Master of the Jewel Office for Elizabeth I and James VI and I.^[1]

Berkhamsted Place (demolished)

Family background

He was a son of John Cary or Carey of Pleshey (died 1551) and Joyce, daughter of Edmund Denny, and widow of William Walsingham.^[2] His homes were at Berkhamsted Place and Aldenham, Hertfordshire. Both houses have been demolished.^[3] In 1560, his mother bequeathed silver plate and a velvet bed tester to Edward's half-brother Francis Walsingham.^[4] His half-sister Mary Walsingham married Walter Mildmay.^[5]

Career

He was a Groom of the Privy Chamber, Keeper of Marylebone Park, Master of the Jewel House jointly with John Astley from August 1595,^[6] a teller of the exchequer,^[7] and was knighted in 1596.^[8]

Cary and Thomas Knyvet were involved in a review of older jewels in 1600 when some pieces were appraised by the goldsmiths Hugh Kayle and Leonard Bush.^[9] Some papers and warrants from Cary's tenure at the Jewel House, which passed to Henry Mildmay, are held at the Somerset Heritage Centre.^[10] Cary also signed an inventory of Elizabeth's clothes and jewels.^[11]

A February 1606 payment to the goldsmith John Williams includes his supply of gold chains and medallions with the king's portrait remaining "under the charge of Sir Edward Cary, Knight, one of the Jewelhouse". Some of the plate made by Williams, in the style of the Tudor goldsmith Cornelis Hayes and destined as diplomatic gifts, remains in the Kremlin.^[12] Auditor Gofton managed the accounts of the disgraced Lord Cobham.^[13] He delivered Cobham's "garter" and "George" jewels to Cary in March 1605.^[14]

Cary died on 18 July 1618 and was buried at Aldenham.

Marriage and children

 

Jane Cary, by Cornelius Johnson

He married Katherine Knyvett (1543–1622),^[15] a daughter of Sir Henry Knevet or Knyvett (died 1546) and his wife Anne Pickering, and widow of Henry Paget, 2nd Baron Paget. She was a sister of his colleague at court, Thomas Knyvett.^[16] Their children included:

• Henry Cary, 1st Viscount Falkland, who was Master of Jewel House jointly with his father.^[17] He married Elizabeth Tanfield in 1602.^[18]
• Philip Cary (MP for Woodstock), his eldest daughter was Miriall Cary (1610–1611).^[19]
• Adolphus Cary (died 1609), married Anne Corbett (died 1601) in August 1596.^[20] A member of the Earl of Nottingham's embassy to Spain in 1605. He was the subject of an epitaph by John Davies of Hereford, addressed to his brother, Philip Cary.^[21] His death from smallpox was investigated by the College of Physicians. William Paddy was exonerated and Dr Antoine was censured.^[22]
• Philip Cary (died 1631), married Elizabeth Bland
• Katherine Cary, who married Henry Longvile in January 1597.^[23]
• Frances Cary, who married (1) Ralph Baesh of Stansted Bury (a son of Edward Baeshe and grandson of Ralph Sadler), and (2) in March 1605, George Manners, 7th Earl of Rutland.^[24] In 1622, her mother, Katherine, Lady Paget, left her the new canopy and couch from her bedchamber.^[25]
• Elizabeth Cary, who married John Savile, 1st Baron Savile of Pontefract
• Meriel Cary (died 1600), who married Thomas Crompton of Hounslow and Skerne in October 1597,^[26] Elizabeth I wrote to her mother, to "good Kate", on the occasion of her death. She is commemorated by a wall monument at Aldenham. In December 1616, their daughter Catherine Crompton (born 1599),^[27] married Thomas Lyttleton of Hagley (his mother was Meriel Lyttelton).^[28]
• Anne Cary (born 1585), who married Francis Leke, 1st Earl of Scarsdale in September 1607.^[29]
• Jane Cary, who married Edward Barrett, 1st Lord Barrett of Newburgh.^[30]

References

1. Arthur J. Collins, Jewels and Plate of Elizabeth I (London: British Museum, 1955), p. 5.
2. John Gough Nichols, 'Cary: Viscounts Falkland', Herald and Genealogist, vol. 3 (London, 1866), p. 34.
3. John Wolstenholme Cobb, Two Lectures on the History and Antiquities of Berkhamsted (London: Nichols, 1833), p. 33.
4. John Gough Nichols, 'Cary: Viscounts Falkland', Herald and Genealogist, vol. 3 (London, 1866), p. 53.
5. John Gough Nichols, 'Cary: Viscounts Falkland', Herald and Genealogist, vol. 3 (London, 1866), p. 37.
6. Murdin (1759), 807.
7. J. Collingwood & J. Trier, Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1575-1578 (London: HMSO, 1982), p. 497 no. 3411.
8. John Gough Nichols, 'Cary: Viscounts Falkland', Herald and Genealogist, vol. 3 (London, 1866), p. 35.
9. HMC Salisbury Hatfield, vol. 10 (1900), pp. 356-9, 385.
10. South West Heritage Trust: Mildmay family muniments box 17
11. Janet Arnold, Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd (Maney, 1988), pp. 328-332: British Library, Stowe MS 557 Inventory of the Royal Wardrobe
12. Frederick Devon, Issues of the Exchequer during the Reign of King James I (London: Rodwell, 1836), p. 29: Timothy Schroder, A Marvel to Behold: Gold and Silver at the Court of Henry VIII (Woodbridge, 2020), pp. 243-4, Kremlin Armoury MZ 642, 643: See also PRO E355/1955 & 1956.
13. HMC Salisbury Hatfield, vol. 16 (London, 1933), p. 331.
14. HMC Salisbury Hatfield, vol. 17 (London, 1938), p. 96.
15. Richard Simpson, The Lady Falkland, Her Life (London, 1861), p. 129.
16. Amy Kenny, 'Katherine Knyvett Paget Cary', Carole Levin, Anna Riehl Bertolet, Jo Eldridge Carney, A Biographical Encyclopedia of Early Modern Englishwomen (Routledge, 2017), p. 499.
17. Frederick Devon, Issues of the Exchequer during the Reign of King James I (London: Rodwell, 1836), p. 305: Calendar State Papers Domestic, 1603–1610, p. 147.
18. Heather Wolfe, Elizabeth Cary, Lady Falkland, Life and Letters (RTM, 2001), p. 108.
19. Herald and Genealogist, 3, pp. 44–45.
20. Herald and Genealogist, 3, pp. 44-5.
21. 'CAREY (CARY), Adolphus (c.1578–1609), of Berkhamsted', History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1604–1629, ed. Andrew Thrush and John P. Ferris, 2010
22. Maurice Lee, Dudley Carleton to John Chamberlain, 1603–1624 (Rutgers UP, 1972), p. 110.
23. Herald and Genealogist, 3, p. 44.
24. Jessica L. Malay, Anne Clifford's Autobiographical Writing, 1590–1676 (Manchester, 2018), pp. 46, 271: Herald and Genealogist, 3, p. 44.
25. Herald and Genealogist, 3, p. 131.
26. 'CROMPTON, Thomas III (d.c.1607), of Hounslow, Mdx. and Skerne', History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558–1603, ed. P.W. Hasler, 1981
27. Herald and Genealogist, 3, p. 44.
28. John Nichols, Progresses of Queen Elizabeth, vol. 3 (London, 1823), pp. 497-8: Robert Phillimore, Memoirs and Correspondence of George, Lord Lyttlton, vol. 1 (London, 1845), p. 20: John Noake, Worcestershire Relics (London, 1887), p. 270.
29. Herald and Genealogist, 3, p. 45.
30. Arthur Collins, Peerage of England (London, 1794), p. 93.