THE POLE-CAREW FAMILY

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4313, 23 March 1901, Page 8 (Supplement)

THE POLE-CAREW FAMILY

THE CARBWS OF HACCOMBE. I General Pole-Carew is the sole male representative of one of the most ancient, and distinguished of Western families, be--1 ing descended of the Carews of Haccombe, who have given many notable men to the service of the country. Haccombe, a de--1 lightfully-situated old manor in one of I the picturesque hollows of South Devon. I enjoys the distinction of being the smallI est parish in England, and, moreover, has I succeeded in preserving its Saxon name j intact, for, excepting the neighbouring manor of Cookington (one of the show places of Torquay, and one time the seat of the Carews), it is the only manor in the county retaining the name it had in remote times. There is the-.legend that no officer, either civil or military, has the right to "take cognisance of any proceedings” in the parish, and that by Royal 1 grant it is exempt from all duties and taxation in consequence of some heroic service done by an ancestor of the Oarews. The ancestor so favoured of Royalty was Baron Carew, whose monument jn Risdon’s day (the s'eventeenth century) "memorising, his great worth,” is to be seen in the Abbey Church at Westminster among the Royal, Princes there. Sir Robert Carew, of Cockington,, was restored to all the estates forfeited by his father, the attainted-Lord Chief Baron, by Henry V.. i for "nobly vanquishing a presumptuous Arragonoise after a most cruel encounter and a long and doubtful combat.’’ AN OLD-TIME CAREW’S WAGER. Another tradition gives the way in which the ancient baronial family of Carew became possessed of this pretty demesne. On the massive oaken door of the quaint old church adjoining the manor house, dating from the seventeenth century (it once possessed peculiar rights, acknowledging only the jurisdiction of the Bishop) are the remnants of four iron horseshoes, two of them still as intact as on the day they were nailed there, 400 or 500 years ago. The story goes that a Carew made a wager that he would swim his hprse a mile out to sea in Torbay and back. He won the bet, and with it ■ the manor of Haccombe. and nailed the horse-shoes to the church door in everlasting remembrance of the feat. The first Carew connected with Devonshire was Sir John du Carru, who married the heiress of Sir William Mohua. of I,lohun’s Ottery, in the thirteenth century. Sir Nicholas Carew, his great grandson, married the heiress of Sir Hugh Courtney, son of the Earl of Devon, who had the Manor of Haccombe with the daughter of Warren, the second son of Sir John le Brchdecon—which takes one back to the Conquest. This was the Baron Carew who was buried at Westminster. His eldest son (disinherited by his mother for '‘some defect of du© respect, as she conceived’’) married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Richard Edgecombe, of Mount Edgecumbe, the fair estate which the commander of the Armada amiably proposed to allot to himself, and was the ancestor of the Oarews of Bickleigh, whose descendant was created Earl of Totnes in 1661. INTERMARRIAGE WITH THE POLES. The second son remained at Haccombe. and another son founded the family at Eiast Antony, in Cornwall, of which General Pole-Carew is now the representative. Later, they married with the Poles, of which Sir William Pole, stated by Blsdon. his contemporary, to he the accomplished treasurer of the antiquities of the conn tv. is the beat known. This Sir William Polo had such a rare memory that he could recite upon the sudden the descents of all the most eminent families, and had "the extraordinary blessing of the Lord that he lived to see his children’s children’s children.'' Many of the Oarews were honoured by their sovereign for services on the field and on the Council. Sir John Carew was chosen by Henry VIII. to command his army in Italy in aid of Pone Clement, hut had the misfortune to be taken prisoner by the Emperor. Almost alone among the Western families, the | Carews were never attainted, which stands j well to their good fortune.