Biography of Gawen Carew 1484-1582

Chronicle of Queen Jane and Two Years of Queen Mary 1554. [3rd February 1554]. On sattersdaye in the mornynge, being the thirde of Februarye, ther came fourthe a proclamation, sett furthe by the quenes counsell, wherin was declared that that traytour Wyat deduced simple people agaynst the quene. Wherefore, she willed all her loving subjectes to endevour themselves to withstande him; and that the duke of Suffolke, with his ij. brethren, were dyscomfeted by the erle of Huntingdon, and certayn of his horsemen taken, and the duke and his ij. brethren fledde in servingman's cottes; and that sir Peter Carowe (age 40) was fled into France; and that sir Gawen Carowe (age 70), Gibbes, and others, were taken, and remayn in Exeter; and that the hole cytie of Exeter, and commons therabout, were at the quenes commandement, with their powere, to the death.^a And that she dyd pardon the hole campe except Wyat, Harper, Rudestone, and Iseley; and that whosoever coulde take Wyat, except the sayd iiij. persons, should have an hunderith poundes a yere to them and to their heires for ever.

Note a. Sir Peter Carew, and his uncle sir Gawen, had been the commanders employed by the government of king Edward VI. to quell the insurrection of Humphrey Arundell and others in Devonshire, in the year 1549, and had been rewarded with the rebels' lands. (Lysons, Magna Britannia, Devonshire, p. x.) Mr. Lysons found no account of the present insurrection in any of the annals of Exeter; and from "The Life of Sir Peter Carew, of Mohun's Ottery," written by John Vowell, alias Hoker (the historian of Exeter), which is printed in the 28th volume of Archaeologia, it is evident that the reports which reached London were much exaggerated. It appears that, before the conspirators had made any head, sir Gawen Carew, sir Arthur Champernowne, and William Gybbes esquire were arrested by sir Thomas Denys the sheriff and sir John Sentleger. Sir Peter Carew, escaping to Weymouth, fled first to France, afterwards to Venice, and lastly to Strasburg; from whence he was tempted to goto Antwerp, in order to seek an interview with lord Paget, but, being arrested, was at last brought back to the Tower of London, in company with sir John Cheke, and finally made his peace with the queen by payment of a heavy fine. See the narrative of these adventures in Archaeologia, vol. xxviii. pp. 120 et seq.; and see also in Tytler's "Edward VI. and Mary," a letter addressed to the queen by sir Nicholas Wotton, her ambassador at Paris, describing sir Peter Carew's reception on his first arrival in France. The date of his release is shown by the following passage in a letter of sir John Mason to Peter Vannes, dated London, Oct. 12, 1555: "Mr. Carew, having throughlie clered himself of all matters layed unto his charge, is also abrode with the quenes favour." (MS. Cotton. Vesp. C. VII. f. 200.)