CAREW, alias THROCKMORTON, Sir Nicholas (c.1567-1644), of Beddington, Surr.

Throckmorton’s prospects as a younger son of the Elizabethan diplomat, himself a younger brother in the Warwickshire family, were transformed by his adoption in 1597 as heir to his elderly uncle Sir Francis Carew. He changed his name, and married a daughter of Sir Francis’ trustee Sir George More. He presumably owed his return to the last Elizabethan Parliament to his brother-in-law Sir Walter Ralegh†. HP Commons, 1558-1603, iii. 496; C142/328/168. Great expectations are sometimes expensive, and shortly after receiving a knighthood at Beddington in June 1603 he complained to More that he had strained his credit ‘to the uttermost’.

You know whereon I do hope, and to whom I am indebted, which may frustrate my hopes if I should not content and please. ... No less than £200 at Midsummer next can make me show my face in company, and £100 at Michaelmas next, which if I cannot have I must leave my country, and my wife and children to the parish. Loseley Mss, 361.

In 1610 he was joined with his cousin Sir Francis Darcy* as trustee for an annuity of £400 granted to Lady Ralegh. CSP Dom. 1603-10, p. 581. In the following year, over the protests of Darcy and other relatives, he entered on the greater part of the Carew inheritance in Surrey, ‘Surr. Wills’, ed. E. Stokes, Surr. Arch. Colls. xxxv. 37-9. including ‘the fair house (or palace rather) at Beddington’, praised by Thomas Fuller. T. Fuller, Worthies (1840), iii. 234. In 1613 he purchased the office of chamberlain of the Exchequer from More, Berks. RO, D/ELL/C1/36, 37. and was shortly able to buy back the one Carew manor, Walton-on-the-Hill, which had been bequeathed to Darcy. VCH Surr. iii. 317. Darcy also offered Carew the hand of his daughter in marriage as a peace offering, but Carew’s second marriage was to a wealthy London widow. Berks. RO, D/ELL/C1/88. He contributed £20 towards the Benevolence raised after the 1614 Parliament failed to vote James I supply. E351/1950. According to Chamberlain, Buckingham cast covetous eyes upon Beddington, but Carew resisted all blandishments, ‘by reason his uncle bestowed it so frankly on him with purpose to continue his name’. Chamberlain Letters ed. N.E. McClure, ii. 254.

In 1620 Carew asked More to nominate his cousin Sir Nicholas Saunders* for Haslemere, but More replied on 12 Dec. that he had already named others to both seats, who had been already returned. More also informed Carew that they had been both elected for Surrey. Berks. RO, D/ELL/C1/111. Carew, named with More to the committee for privileges on 5 Feb., seems to have played little further part in its proceedings. He was appointed to two committees to consider private bills. The first, on 1 May, was to consider a bill to enable Esmé Stuart, 1st earl of March and his wife to sell property in Gloucestershire. The countess was the great-granddaughter of the sister of Carew’s mother and had been one of the parties to the suit to overturn Sir Francis Carew’s will. The other bill, committed on 4 May, was to enable Sir Edward Montagu* and other trustees to sell property in Huntingdonshire formerly belonging to the late Sir Edward Aspley. Carew’s connection with this measure is unknown, although it may have come via Sir George More, who was also appointed to the committee. In addition Carew, whose surname is consistently spelt ‘Carye’ in the Journal, may be the ‘Sir Nath. Carye’ added to the committee for Sir Charles Caesar’s* bill on 4 Dec., as no Member of that name then sat in Parliament. Once again Carew’s connection to More, who had been named to the original committee, may explain his appointment. CJ, i. 507b, 598b, 606b, 654a, 658a; HP Commons, 1558-1603, i. 617-18; ii. 16-18; ‘Surr. Wills’, 39.

In January 1622 Carew was summoned before the Privy Council for refusing to contribute towards the Benevolence towards the recovery of the Palatinate, and shortly afterwards he paid £50. SP14/127/48; 14/156/15. He subsequently served as collector for the Benevolence in Surrey. When he wrote to Sir George More seeking a seat for his eldest son Francis Carew II* in 1624, he asked that if the young man were thought unsuitable, ‘you would be pleased to bestow a place upon myself’. However, Francis was evidently acceptable to More, and Carew did not sit again. Add. 29599, f. 20. Carew purchased Crown lands in Surrey in 1625, and the following year was appointed a collector of the Forced Loan. C66/2327/22. After Francis fled to France to escape his creditors in 1630, Carew wrote to him that it was ‘the greatest disgrace that ever befell me’ when the son’s sureties were taken up. Add. 29599, f. 39. Although appointed a commissioner of array by Charles I in 1642, Carew played no known role in the Civil War, but after his death his son claimed he had paid his taxes to Parliament. He died in February 1644 and was buried at Beddington, leaving an estate estimated as worth at least £1,000 p.a. although charged with £4,000 debt. No will or grant of administration has been found. CCC, 841.