The History of Torquay- TorMohun

I discovered that William Briwere was my 25th Grandfather, Having lived in Torquay for 20 years, I did not realise how close i was actually linked to this beautiful town, It wasnt until i discovered my ancestry in the Village of Haccombe and the little parcel of land that i bought and how it was once owned by on my mothers side the Courtney/ Courtenay family, The Earls of Devon and My dads side the Deveres. This year i have further discovered more links with my relations to The Cary's, Briwere's, Mohun's Carew's, Ridgeways who owned much of Devon and the quaint little villages that reside, here is the research as follows.

Tor Mohun (formerly Tor Brewer)[1] is a historic manor and parish on the south coast of Devon, now superseded by the Victorian sea-side resort of Torquay and known as Tormohun, an area within that town. In 1876 the Local Board of Health obtained the sanction of Government to alter the name of the district from Tormoham (sic) to Torquay.[2]

The ancient Church of St Saviour, the parish church of Tor Mohun, is on Tor Church Road, today serving as the Greek Orthodox Church of Saint Andrew. It contains several monuments, most notably to Thomas Ridgeway (1543–1598) of Torwood House, lord of the manor of Tor Mohun, and of the Cary families of nearby Torre Abbey, and Cockington Court,[3] both within the parish.

The manor of TORRE is listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 as held in-chief and in demesne by Willelmus Hostiarius ("William the Usher"),[4] a servant of King William the Conqueror and one of the minor Devon Domesday Book tenants-in-chief of that king. He also held from the king in Devon the manors of Taw Green, Raddon, Bolham, Ilsham and Mariansleigh.[5]

The manor subsequently became known as Tor Brewer[1] when held by William Brewer (died 1226). In 1196 he gave part of the manor's land for the founding of Torre Abbey,[6] a monastery for Premonstratensian canons. The two estates of Tor Mohun and Torre Abbey remained apart until shortly after the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 16th century and were once again parted in the 17th century (see below). Since Brewer's only surviving son died childless, his eventual heirs became his daughters, the fourth of whom, Alice married (as her first husband) Reginald de Mohun (1185–1213)[7][8] feudal baron of Dunster, of Dunster Castle in Somerset. She brought him a great estate, and "is set down among the benefactors to the new Cathedral Church of Salisbury, having contributed thereto all the marble necessary for the building thereof for twelve years."[9]

Reginald de Mohun (1185–1213) acquired Tor on his marriage to Alice Brewer, and thenceforth it was known as Tor Mohun. She gave the manor to her younger son, who died childless, when it reverted to the Mohun family of Dunster.[7] (For future descent see: Feudal barony of Dunster).

Tor Mohun was purchased by John Ridgeway (c. 1517 – 1560)[7] of Abbots Carswell in Devon, a Member of Parliament for Dartmouth and Exeter. His son Thomas Ridgeway (1543–1598), MP, later purchased the adjoining Torre Abbey[10] from Sir Edward Seymour, 1st Baronet (c. 1563–1613)[7] of Berry Pomeroy, Devon. A monument to Thomas Ridgeway, with his effigy, survives in the former St Saviour's Church, Tor Mohun.[3] Thomas Ridgeway's son was Thomas Ridgeway, 1st Earl of Londonderry (c. 1565 – 1631).

In 1653[11] Torre Abbey was sold to Sir John Stawell (1625-1669) of Parke in the parish of Bovey Tracey, Devon (whose mural monument survives in Bovey Tracey Church), a counsellor-at-law.[12] In 1662 Stawell sold it to Sir George Cary,[13] (d.1678) whose first cousin Sir Henry Cary, Sheriff of Devon in 1637, had sold nearby Cockington (the ancient Cary family seat) during the Civil War "in his zeal for royalty".[14] The last male member of the family was Robert Ridgeway, 4th Earl of Londonderry (died 1714), who died without male progeny and was buried at Tor Mohun.[15] His two daughters and co-heiresses were:

• Lucy Ridgeway (died 1736), wife of Arthur Chichester, 4th Earl of Donegall (1695–1757), without progeny.[15] In 1768[16] Tor Mohun was sold "by the Earl of Donegal" (sic, deceased)[13] to Sir Robert Palk, 1st Baronet (1717–1798), later of Haldon House in the parish of Kenn, Devon.[13]
• Frances Ridgeway, wife of Thomas Pitt, 1st Earl of Londonderry (died 1729), who in 1726 was created Earl of Londonderry.[15]

In about 1768,[13] the Earl of Donegal sold Tor Mohun with its manor house known as Torwood,[17] and several other estates, to Sir Robert Palk, 1st Baronet (1717–1798), who had recently returned from his career as Governor of Madras in the East Indies with a "princely fortune" at his disposal and was "in quest of a seat in his native county where he might enjoy the fruits of his toil in elegant leisure and courteous hospitality".[17] He was not however happy with the layout of the estate as fields next to Torwood House had been sold off by the Ridgeways and thus "interfered with the demesne", that is to say interfered with his privacy.[citation needed] He attempted to buy back the fields in question from his neighbour Mr Cary of Torre Abbey, who refused to sell. He therefore decided to alter his plan of turning Torwood House into a palatial residence, and purchased another estate at Haldon, where he built Haldon House as his new seat, one of the grandest houses in Devon.[18] He let Torwood House and the Tor Mohun estate to a farmer ("converted it into a farm house" (Swete)[19]). Torwood House was described by Rev. John Swete as follows, when he visited the area in 1793:[20]

"The house was not quite half mile distant from the quay: passing by an elm of great bulk I ascended some steps and through an arch'd gateway enter'd a spacious court of a quadrangular form surrounded by high walls. The house had a venerable aspect, its windows formed by stone mullions and over its projecting doorway was a sculpture, possibly the arms of the family of Ridgeway, its antient possessor. The rooms within have nothing remarkable but their size; the Hall in particular possesses from this circumstance no small degree of consequence and the chamber above, now converted into a general dormitory for the servants of the farmer who rents the estate, seems to be of equal dimensions. There are however no other remains of the magnificence of the family that inhabited it, no fretwork, no sculpture but the arms I have before noticed, no painted glass in the windows..."

Swete painted three watercolours of the house and its setting in 1792/3, which survive in the Devon Record Office.[21] The only element he found which reminded him of the "savour of antient workmanship" was the staircase, the steps of which were made not of planks but of solid blocks of oak.[20] Eventually Palk, together with his neighbour Cary of Torre Abbey, devised a plan to develop the two adjoining estates of Tor Mohun and Torre Abbey into a seaside resort town for visitors, now Torquay. On a previous visit in 1792 to the then small village of "Torquay", Swete remarked in his Travel Journal: "About six in the evening I quitted Torquay which under the auspices of Sir Robert Palk (if the plans which I have seen be carried into execution) will be one day raised into importance".[22]

Cockington Chapel was anciently a chapel of ease of St Saviour's Church, Tor Mohun.[6]

1. ^ Jump up to:a b Risdon, p.378
2. ^ White, J.T., History of Torquay, Torquay, 1878, Preface
3. ^ Jump up to:a b Cherry, Bridget & Pevsner, Nikolaus, The Buildings of England: Devon. Yale University Press, 2004. ISBN 978-0-300-09596-8., p.851
4. ^ Name given in full in Latin for his holding of Taw Green, Thorn 51:2
5. ^ Thorn, Chapter 51
6. ^ Jump up to:a b Thorn, Part 2 (notes), Chapter 51:12
7. ^ Jump up to:a b c d Pole, Sir William (died 1635), Collections Towards a Description of the County of Devon, Sir John-William de la Pole (ed.), London, 1791, p.272.
8. ^ Sanders, p.123
9. ^ Cleveland, Duchess of, Battle Abbey Roll[full citation needed]
10. ^ Risdon, p.146
11. ^ Rhodes, Michael, Devon's Torre Abbey: Faith, Politics and Grand Designs, Stroud, Gloucestershire, 2015, p.65
12. ^ Per History of Parliament biography of his son William Stawell [1]
13. ^ Jump up to:a b c d Burke, Sir Bernard, Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies ..., 2nd Edition, 1841, p.443.
14. ^ Vivian, p.152
15. ^ Jump up to:a b c Vivian, p.647
16. ^ White, J.T., History of Torquay, Torquay, 1878, p.37
17. ^ Jump up to:a b Gray & Rowe, Vol.1, p.165
18. ^ Gray & Rowe, Vol.1, pp. 165–6
19. ^ Gray & Rowe, Vol.1, p.84
20. ^ Jump up to:a b Gray & Rowe, Vol.1, p.164
21. ^ DRO 564M/F4/14, 18 & 22, published in Gray & Rowe, Vol.1, pp. 163–5
22. ^ Gray & Rowe, Vol.1, p.85

• Gray, Todd & Rowe, Margery (Eds.), Travels in Georgian Devon: The Illustrated Journals of The Reverend John Swete, 1789–1800, 4 vols., Tiverton: Devon Books, 1999.
• Risdon, Tristram (died 1640), Survey of Devon. With considerable additions. London, 1811.
• Sanders, I.J. English Baronies: A Study of their Origin and Descent 1086-1327, Oxford, 1960.
• Thorn, Caroline & Frank, (eds.) Domesday Book Vol. 9: Devon, Parts 1 & 2, Phillimore Press, Chichester, 1985. ISBN 0-85033-492-6
• Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620. Exeter, 1895.

In 1196 six Premonstratensian canons from the Welbeck Abbey in Nottinghamshire founded Torre Abbey when William Brewer, lord of the manor of Torre, gave them land. By 1536 the Abbey's annual income made it the wealthiest of all the Premonstratensian houses in England.[1] The canons surrendered to King Henry's VIII's commissioner in 1539 at the Dissolution of the Monasteries and immediately thereafter in 1539 a 21-year lease of the site and demesne of Torre Abbey was acquired by Sir Hugh I Pollard (fl.1535,1545), lord of the manor of King's Nympton,[2] Sheriff of Devon in 1535/6 and Recorder of Barnstaple in 1545. In 1543 Pollard acquired the freehold from John St. Leger (d.1596) of Annery, who had himself acquired it in 1543 with other lands from the king in exchange for some lands and payment of a cash balance.[3] Dissolution resulted in a widescale demolition of the church and east range, and all items of value, including the lead from the roofs, were taken. The south and west ranges were mostly unscathed and, in 1598, were converted into a house for Thomas Ridgeway. After a succession of various owners, the house became the possession of the Cary family in 1662.[4] The house continued in the possession of the Cary family until 1930 when the mansion and grounds were sold by Commander Henry Cary to the Torquay Borough Council, although the family continued to own the surrounding estate and the (notional) lordship of the manor of Tor Mohun.[5] Monuments to various members of the Cary family survive in St Saviour's Church.[6] The building has since been used as a municipal art gallery; the mayor's parlour and, during World War II, it was used by the Royal Air Force. Torre Abbey is owned and managed by Torbay Council. After a £6.5 million refurbishment made possible by grants from the Heritage Lottery Fund, English Heritage and the Friends of Torre Abbey, Torre Abbey reopened in July 2008.

The main abbey comprises two Grade I listed buildings. Though the church is little more than a ruin, the west and south sides of the cloisters are still standing. The gatehouse dates from around 1380, and the barrel vault above the chapel, formerly the guest hall, dates from the 15th century. The tithe barn, built along with the abbey in the early thirteenth century, is known as The Spanish Barn after it was used for fourteen days to hold 397 prisoners of war from the Spanish Armada in 1588. Around 1740 the buildings underwent extensive alterations, giving them a Georgian remodelling that is mostly intact today. The Cary family invested in further reconstructions throughout the 19th century, including the construction of a small brewery.

St Michael's Chapel on the summit of Chapel Hill, in Torquay may have belonged to the Abbey.[7]

1. ^ Valor Ecclesiasticus, ii, p. 362
2. ^ Vivian, p.598, pedigree of Pollard
3. ^ Youings, Joyce, Devon Monastic Lands: Calendar of Particulars for Grants 1536–1558, Devon & Cornwall Record Society, New Series, Vol.1, Torquay, 1955, pp.25–7, grant no.33
4. ^ Exeter Diocesan Architectural Society (1867). Transactions of the Exeter Diocesan Architectural Society. p. 58.
5. ^ Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry, 15th Edition, ed. Pirie-Gordon, H., London, 1937, pp.369-70, pedigree of Cary of Torre Abbey
6. ^ Bridget Cherry; Nikolaus Pevsner (2004). The Buildings of England: Devon. Yale University Press. p. 851. ISBN 978-0-300-09596-8.
7. ^ "St Michael's Chapel, Chapel Hill". Historic England. Retrieved 1 January 2020.
8. ^ Tucker, Jedediah Stephens (1844). Admiral the Right Hon The Earl of St. Vincent GCB &C. Memoirs Volume 2. Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street. pp. 49, 111.

• Gasquet, Francis Aidan (1908). "Chapter 12: Torre Abby". The Greater Abbeys of England. p. 283. Retrieved 27 August 2017.
• Gasquet, Francis Aidan (August 2017). "Audio reading of "Chapter 12: Torre Abby"". LibriVox. Retrieved 27 August 2017.
• Seymour, Deryck (1977), Torre Abbey. An Account of its History, Buildings, Cartularies and Lands, Exeter: privately printed
• Seymour, Deryck, ed. (2000), The Exchequer Cartulary of Torre Abbey, Friends of Torre Abbey, Torquay: Friends of Torre Abbey
• Rhodes, Michael; Retallick, L. (2000), Torre Abbey. A Souvenir Guide, Friends of Torre Abbey (PDF), Torbay Council, archived from the original (PDF) on 16 July 2011
• Rhodes, Michael, Devon's Torre Abbey: Faith, Politics and Grand Designs, 2015 

 The Cary Family became the owners of the village of clovelly along with Cockington, I am related to them as cary married into the Boleyn lines which made them my cousins. Along with mother being a spencer whom are related to Lady Diana Spence within my mothers ancestry.

A collection of resources of research relating to the Cary family of torquay Devon.
One by Leslie retalick and I mention this name due to an Annalise retalick who sold me my horse pixie.. I will further research how retalick is also within my family tree in due course. When I find the links and add when I discover their links to the Carys.

The Cary Family in India

India, the jewel in the crown of the British Empire, was a place of opportunity for those seeking to make their fortune, and was a particular magnet for the younger sons of the English landed gentry.  Members of the Cary family of Torre Abbey were no exception, as the chance discovery of a set of photographs proves.

When George Cary IV died in 1828, Torre Abbey was inherited by his eldest nephew Henry Cary.  As Henry’s younger brother Bernard had missed out on the inheritance there was probably little to keep him in England and he decided to try his luck in India.  He joined the Indian Army, rising through the ranks to become Lieutenant-Colonel.  He and his wife, Eliza Castelli, had two children, Sulyarde Bernard (1847–1915) and Eliza (1838–1908), both born in India.  Bernard and his wife later moved to Austria, but their two children stayed on in India, spending most of their lives there. 

Many of the well-to-do British in India spent their winters in the larger cities, with a seemingly endless round of receptions, parties and other social occasions.  However, the searingly hot Indian summers proved too much for those from northern climes, and those who could afford to do so moved for the summer months to the cooler hill towns, such as Simla and Darjeeling.  Getting to these places often involved many days of difficult travel along rough cart tracks, something that caused a great deal of grumbling in high places, even the Viceroy complaining.  Eliza Cary had married Franklin Prestage, an agent for the Eastern Bengal Railway Company, and it was he who promoted the idea of the construction of a railway to Darjeeling, the ‘Queen of the Hill Towns’.  His scheme found favour with the Bengal government as not only would it cut out days of arduous travel, but it would also encourage trade and reduce the cost of goods being transported to Darjeeling.  The line was built to a narrow gauge of just two feet and was very steeply graded, having to rely on a number of spiral loops and other devices to gain height in places.  Franklin Prestage, although in overall control of the line’s construction, needed another engineer on site and Sulyarde Bernard Cary, Franklin’s brother-in-law, was appointed chief engineer, a position he held until well after the line’s completion.  When he retired, he was presented with a parchment scroll from his colleagues, contained in a magnificent solid Indian silver case, now in the Torre Abbey collection, although I don’t think it’s currently on display.

An album of photographs came up for sale in the USA a while ago and show that the Cary and Prestage families maintained a lavish lifestyle, in keeping with their social position.  The photos were mostly taken by Anna Prestage, one of Franklin and Eliza’s daughters.  I contacted Torre Abbey but for some reason the then authorities felt they had no relevance to the Abbey, even though included in the set was what is probably the earliest known photograph of Torre Abbey, taken in about 1865.  Never have understood that!  Regrettably, I couldn’t afford the asking price personally for the albums but the vendor was kind enough to allow me to purchase several of the more relevant photographs as a small separate collection.  Among those that I managed to save is a view of ‘Uncle Cary’s house’ near Calcutta, the winter home of Sulyarde Bernard Cary.  It’s a most imposing residence, standing on the banks of an ornamental watercourse.

Sulyarde Bernard Cary had married Elizabeth Jane Hindmarsh, with whom he had a son, Launcelot Sulyarde Robert Cary.  Elizabeth died on board a passenger ship plying between Aden and Colombo in March 1892 and was buried at sea.  Sulyarde didn’t remain a widower for long, marrying Georgeanna Emma Dix, the daughter of George Frederick Dix and Emma Churchill, in Bombay in 1893.  They had a daughter, Hilda Dix Cary, born in 1895 in Darjeeling.  There are two photographs of her in the set I purchased, one of her as a baby and one in a family group with her parents and her elder step-brother, Launcelot.  He had been born on 28 December 1890 in Darjeeling and was baptised on 30 January 1891.  Like most children of the British elite he was educated in England, being sent to the Beaumont Roman Catholic School near Windsor.  His cousin, Franklin Prestage junior was also sent to England as a boy, to Stonyhurst College in Lancashire, the most prestigious catholic school in the country. 

Due to the length of time it took to reach India, those sent to school in England rarely returned home except for the long summer holidays, so in the Christmas and Easter breaks, the Cary and Prestage children would probably have travelled to Devon to stay at Torre Abbey.  Among the photographs in the set is one of Franklin Prestage junior taken at a studio in Torquay, so he must have been staying at Torre Abbey at the time.  There are also several photographs of Launcelot, including one of him as an infant aged 17 months and one aged four, both taken in Darjeeling.  Colonel Lucius Cary, who had inherited Torre Abbey on the death of elder brother Robert in 1898, had no surviving children, so it was arranged that when Colonel Lucius died, Torre Abbey would pass to his cousin, Sulyarde Bernard Cary.  However, Sulyarde himself died a few months prior to Colonel Lucius, so young Launcelot became the next in line. There is another photograph of him aged ten years old, holding a military helmet and clutching a toy rifle.  This is a particularly poignant picture, as Launcelot was killed at the Battle of the Somme in the First World War, when he was serving as a 2nd Lieutenant with the Devonshire regiment.  He was only 25, and had inherited Torre Abbey less than three weeks earlier, and with his death the direct male line of the Cary family of Torre Abbey came to an end.

These photographs have opened a window onto a part of the Cary family history that was previously little known and prove that at least some members of the family were willing to venture out into the wider world and, with the construction of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, become genuine Empire Builders!
This is all written by Leslie retalick. 

Other links with information and research availble about the Cary family.

https://www.caryarms.co.uk/about-us/history

https://wearesouthdevon.com/discovering-the-cary-family.../

https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/c/F22647

https://murreyandblue.wordpress.com/.../give-the-carys-a.../

https://www.mytribe101.com/surname/cary
https://www.caryfamily.co.uk

https://www.torbay.gov.uk/media/1841/libcockington.pdf

https://archive.org/.../houseofstuartcar00watk_djvu.txt

https://www.seekingmyroots.com/members/files/G001197.pdf

https://www.cockington-forge.com/history-and-articles/

https://cockingtoncourt.org/visit/the-village/

Note By Abbe Devere:

For me personally I found a love with Cockington court in Torquay back in the early 2000s and wanted to work here in some way or another I found myself working here for 4 years being their official facepainter for their annual events.

Many times I walk my dog in the gardens and again was another place we( my kids dad)  were looking at to get married,  at the time they did not have this opportunity until I proposed it to the lady in charge who soon took the opportunity to reform it as a registry office. My friend kayley got married to her husband Russell about 5 years ago here. So that for me is so lovely. (She, they both, was my saving grace and helped me through my hardest times)

I also discovered a beautiful village called Clovelly when I took the kids on another (one of many) waterfall searches..we found St Audrey's Bay which I have posted photos of here in the past and the beautiful little village that was owned again by my Cary’s.  At that time I had no clue to my family links here.. its a white feather walk where I am taken to these places on a wim.

The Carys are related to me through the Howard's, The boleyns as  Sir William Carey, Esq (Knight)

BIRTH ABT. 1500 • William Carey (abt. 1495 – 22 June 1528)[3] was a courtier and favourite of King Henry VIII of England. He served the king as a Gentleman of the Privy chamber, and Esquire of the Body to the King. His wife, Mary Boleyn, is known to history as a mistress of King Henry VIII.

His mother was either name Elenor or Margaret Spencer, Her father was Sir Robert Spencer, of Spencercombe, in the English County of Devon, by his wife Lady Eleanor Beaufort. 

DEATH 22 JUN 1528 • Gloucestershire, England, (Information from Ancestry birth deaths and marriages).His granddaughter married into the Scrope family which relates to Castle Combe Scropes, mopre on that later. Other families tied to the Cary's are: The Spencers and association with carews and Briwere lines. There is all so much history that I am yet to discover and link this with my Torre Abbey information whom I have just spoken to as I'm going on another ancestry search taking all the information in and art that has been passed down from the current Cary family, I need a special visit to get to the secret galleries, so that is still yet to come.
http://www.torre-abbey.org.uk/

To be continued...........

The name Carey, along with its other derivations, yields a long and illustrious history in North Western Europe, specifically in what is now the British Isles, the Republic of Ireland, and North West France.

As a surname it has two distinct origins: Normandy (North West France) and Ireland - both heavily influenced by ancient Celtic history. While the considerable influence of the ancient Celts on Irish culture is well known, their role in the early history of North West France is often underestimated. Early historical records indicate that as a name Carey or Cary evolved in Britainy in part from the Celtic word 'cari' (also spelt 'kari'), meaning 'pleasant stream'.

The Irish Careys were descendants of the O'Ciardhas of Kildare (or of Killkenny according to some records), a powerful Irish sect situated near Dublin. Many of their descendants travelled down to the Southern coast of Ireland, where the clan name was changed to 'Carey'. Here the Careys settled before emigrating later to South West England, and then to other parts of England and the Americas starting at the end of the 17th century.

The Norman Careys, like many other families from Normandy, were most probably decendants of a variety of earlier groups who migrated through North West Europe. Most notably, the Norman Careys would probably have had Gaulic and Celtic ancestry, as well as Norse, Germanic and Teutonic heritage. In particular, there was a strong tradition of interplay between Norman and Celtic societies - both positive and all too often negative. This was partly due to their geographical proximity, and partly due to common cultural themes that remained in place for many generations.

The Norman name was originally spelt 'de Kari', which in turn translates to 'of Kari'. When translated into Celtic this would have meant 'of the pleasant stream'. However, within Normandy itself it is feasible that the name referenced a specific geographical area, possibly the Manor of Carrey in Lisieux.

There is no record of a de Kari arriving with William the Conquerer and his knights during the invasion of England in 1066, or of any Careys before this time. It is therefore likely that the Norman Carey ancestors arrived after the successful invasion.

The earliest English mainland Carey on record is a Norman knight and Lord named Adam de Kari, who was most probably born between 1170 and 1180, and was the first recorded occupant of Castle Cary in Somerset. The fact that de Kari governed Castle Cary strongly suggests that either the de Kari family was of noble Norman stock, or that the patriarch of the family was highly regarded as a politician and soldier. Given the early and rapid emergence of the Carys in Anglo-Norman culture the former of these theories is highly probable.

Between the twelfth and the fifteenth centuries the Kari name evolved into Kary and then Cary, as the Norman invaders began to adopt some indigenous Anglo-Saxon mannerisms. Like other prominent Norman families, the Carys of this time exerted considerable influence in the evolving social hierarchy, especially throughout the counties of Somerset and Wiltshire.

In addition, around this time emerged the first reliable evidence of a Carey line living on Guernsey in the Channel Islands. A Jean Carey is recorded as being 'alive in 1393'. Other evidence seems to indicate that the Guernsey line descended directly from Normandy, and not from the English Carey line.

Although the Carys of Somerset held no direct lineage to the English throne, they did hold some influence with several English monarchs. During the reign of Henry V, Sir Robert Cary (born 1375) won wide-spread admiration for defeating a highly proficient (and somewhat troublesome) knight. In the sixteenth century his descendant William Cary married Mary Boleyn, the sister of King Henry VIII's late wife Anne. William's son Henry (1524-1596) became a respected soldier and diplomat, and Henry's eldest son George was given the title of 'Baron Hunsdon' by the Queen Elizabeth I. Also on record during this era is one Thomas Cary, his name appearing in the Assixe Rolls of London in 1375.

Over the subsequent three centuries the Carey ancestors lost some direct influence in the English aristocracy, but maintained a more progressive presence through academic and creative works. Indeed, Henry Carey (1760-1839) is accredited with composing "God Save the King" - the English national anthem, while one of his distant cousins William Carey (1761-1834) helped to form the Baptist Missionary Society.

The relationship between the Irish and Norman Carey/Cary lines is difficult to establish. Through the centuries the Cary spelling has been common place in South West England, specifically around Castle Cary and the river Cary. The proliferation of Careys in Southern Ireland and their steady filtration over to England starting around the 16th century suggests that the origins of the two lines are quite distinct. However, name standardization, a general lack of lineage data, and the tendancy to spell words and names phonetically from the 18th century onwards complicates matters somewhat, and makes it very difficult for many families to trace their true ancestry.

During the eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth centuries many Careys migrated from England and Southern and Western Ireland to the Americas, making Carey a less common surname in English society. More recently both British and Irish bearers of the Carey name have increased in number, and the American Careys have boomed. Today there are more than 110,000 Careys World-wide. Owners of other variations of the name are fewer in number but still significant.

Written by Andrew Carey, March, 2001.
Last revised by Andrew Carey, February, 2018.

COAT OF ARMS:Bent sable, embossed with three roses of the field, on argent. English Origin.TRANSLATION:White argent for peace and sincerity;
Black sable for constancy;
Three roses for beauty and grace.DERIVATIONS:Cary, Carey, O'Carey, Carrey, Cari, Carew, O'Carew, Karry, Carry, Karey, de KariCREST:A swan argent, wings endorsedMOTTO:"Sine Macula"
Norman translation: "Without Blemish"
Latin translation: "Without Stain"

Sources:

• The Historical Research Center: Carey Family Name History.
• List of Norman knights involved in the invasion of England in 1066.
• Geographical maps of Northern France and South West England.
• Biographical information in Wikipedia.org.

 The Cary family in England : Cary, Henry Grosvenor, 1829-1905 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive 

Firts Published in 1936 The Complete Peerage vol IX (4)

Edited by H, A, Doubleday, Geoffrey H Wite and Lord Howard De Walden, Further edits by Abbe Devere 2023.

 William De Mohun was a monir when his father diedand was in ward of the king. For his maintenace the sum of £18 was allowed for eighteen months presumeably until he cam of age. He was the benefactor of Bruton. H econfirmed the gifts of his father and Grandfather and granted Tithe of his mills in Normandyto the Abbey of the holyTrinity of La Lazerne. He apparently went to jerulselum on pilgramageHe married Lucy surname unknown and died in 1193, His widow was dower to several of his fees in Englad.

Reynold De Mohun was presumably younger, the brother of william, and only surviving son, He has=d livery of the greater part of his inheritance in 1204 but in that year on the lossof Normandy to King John, he lost his estates there, He took prominant  part in the invasion of France in 1206and accompanied king John to Ireland in 1210.

He Married Alice Briwere, Tge 4th Daughter of William Briwere , , Alicde when widowed married William paynel of Brampton Devon who dies in 1228.

Reynold De mohun son of Reynold above was a minor on his fathers deat, His wardship was granted to Henry Fitzcountand on his death in 1222 to william Briwere, His own Grandfather, He had livery in 1227 and was made kN=night, He accompanied the kinf=g on his frennch exposdition in 1230 and to wales in 1231. He was the benefactor to the hour=ses in Bruton, Barlinch a, With 100 marks per annum for maintence and keeper of the Eoyal forest south of Trent and Cleeve, Newenham at Axminster, in 1253 he had grants of free warren at Dunster Catle north Devon, whuchford snd otteryand losecen to hunt hare, fox, cat and badger inin Somerset. H e married teice, firsty to Hawise and secondly in 1243 he married Isabel de Ferrers, who was widow to Gilbertbasset, Isabel was daughter of William Deferrers Earl of Derby, Her mother was sibyl Marshal, Daughter of William Marshal, Early of Pembrokeshire.He died at Tormohun, (Torquay, Devon) in jan 1257/58.