William Carey

William Carey

Male 1500 - 1528  (~ 28 years)

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  • Name William Carey 
    Birth ~ 1500  Aldenham, Hertfordshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location  [1, 2, 3
    Gender Male 
    Death 22 Jun 1528  [2
    Person ID I47456  The Hennessee Family
    Last Modified 15 Feb 2017 

    Father Thomas Carey,   b. 0___ 1465, Clovelly, Devon, England Find all individuals with events at this locationd. Bef 1548, Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, England Find all individuals with events at this location (Age ~ 82 years) 
    Mother Margaret Spencer,   b. ~1471, Spencer Combe, Devon, England Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 1536 (Age ~ 64 years) 
    Marriage ~1492  [4, 5, 6
    Family ID F16896  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family Mary Boleyn,   b. 1499-1500, Blickling Hall, Norfolk, England Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 19 Jul 1543 (Age 43 years) 
    Marriage 4 Feb 1520  [1, 6, 7
    • William Cary, the first husband of Mary Boleyn, sister of Queen Anne Boleyn, and ancestor to the Cary Barons Hunsdon, Barons Cary of Leppington, Earls of Monmouth, Viscounts Rochford and Earls of Dover.
    Children 
     1. Catherine Carey,   b. ~ 1524   d. 15 Jan 1569, Hampton Court Palace, London, England Find all individuals with events at this location (Age ~ 45 years)
     2. Sir Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon,   b. 0Mar 1526
    Family ID F17418  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 30 Apr 2023 

  • Event Map
    Link to Google MapsBirth - ~ 1500 - Aldenham, Hertfordshire, England Link to Google Earth
     = Link to Google Earth 

  • Photos
    William Carey
    William Carey

    attributed to Hans Holbein the Younger. From a private Irish collection.

    William Carey, of Aldenham, in Hertfordshire (c. 1500 - 22 June 1528) 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 and the sister of Henry's second wife, Anne Boleyn.

  • Notes 
    • William Carey, of Aldenham, in Hertfordshire (c. 1500 - 22 June 1528) 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 and the sister of Henry's second wife, Anne Boleyn.

      Biography

      William Carey was the second son of Sir Thomas Carey (1455–1500), of Chilton Foliat in Wiltshire, and his wife, Margaret Spencer, daughter of Sir Robert Spencer and Eleanor Beaufort, and grandson of Sir William Cary of Cockington, Devon, an eminent Lancastrian.[2] This Cary family were anciently recorded in Devon, and originally held the manors at Cockington and Clovelly in that county.[3] Eleanor was the daughter of Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset, whose brother John Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset, was the father of Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond and Derby, grandmother of King Henry VIII; thus William and Henry VIII were third cousins. William's maternal aunt was Catherine Spencer, Countess of Northumberland, and through her, he was first cousin to Henry Percy, 6th Earl of Northumberland, the former suitor of his sister-in-law Anne Boleyn.

      On 4 February 1520,[4] he was married to Mary Boleyn, the elder daughter of Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire and his wife, Lady Elizabeth Howard. They resided at Aldenham in Hertfordshire.

      Shortly after their marriage, Mary became the mistress of King Henry VIII. The Boleyns received grants of land, and Carey himself profited from his wife's unfaithfulness, being granted manors and estates by the King while it was in progress.[5] Carey was also a noted art collector and he introduced the famed Dutch artist, Lucas Horenbout, to the Kingdom of England in the mid-1520s. Perhaps one of the reasons the athletic King Henry VIII favoured Carey was the fact that Carey appears to have been fond of activities such as riding, hunting and jousting. Carey distinguished himself in jousting at the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520.

      Anne Boleyn, Mary's sister, caught Henry's eye a year after his affair with Mary ended. Henry proposed marriage to her in 1527. William Carey did not live to enjoy his sister-in-law's prosperity, since he died of the sweating sickness the following year. Brian Tuke, Henry's secretary at the time of Carey's death wrote this to Lord Legat the day after his death: "Now is word common that M. Cary, which before I came lay in the chamber where I lie, and with whom at my first coming I met here in this place, saying that he had been with his wife at Plashey, and would not be seen within, because he would ride again and hunt, is dead of the sweat. Our Lord have mercy on his soul; and hold his hand over us." He died greatly in debt, and his wife was reduced to pawning her jewellery before Anne Boleyn arranged a pension for her.

      Children of William Carey and Mary Boleyn[edit]
      William Carey and Mary Boleyn were the parents of two children:

      Catherine Carey (c. 1524 – 15 January 1568). Maid of Honour to Anne of Cleves and Catherine Howard. She was married to the Puritan Sir Francis Knollys, Knight of the Garter. She was later lady-in-waiting to her cousin, Elizabeth I. One of her daughters, Lettice Knollys, became the second wife of Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, the favourite of Elizabeth I.
      Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon (4 March 1526 – 23 July 1596). He was ennobled by Queen Elizabeth I just after her coronation and created Knight of the Garter in 1561. When Henry was dying, Elizabeth offered him the Boleyn family title, Earl of Ormonde, which he had long sought, but he refused the honour.
      Because of Mary's affair, it has been suggested that Catherine and Henry may have been instead Henry VIII's biological children (see Issue of Mary Boleyn). The veracity of this claim is the subject of historical debate.

      * [2]

  • Sources 
    1. [S10389] "Catherine Carey" biography, abstracted, downloaded and published Tuesday, February 14th, 2017 by David A. Hennessee, in.

    2. [S10395] "William Carey (courtier)" biography, abstracted, downloaded and published Wednesday, February 15th, 2017 by David A. He.

    3. [S10396] "William Carey (courtier) ~ 1500-6/22/1528" pedigree, abstracted, downloaded and published Wednesday, February 15th, 201.

    4. [S9759] "Edward Cary" 9-Generation Ahnentafel, http://www.ourfamilyhistories.org/ahnentafel.php?personID=I16536&tree=00&parentse.

    5. [S10613] "Margaret (or Eleanor) Spencer (1472-1536)" biography, which was abstracted, downloaded and published Thursday, March 9t.

    6. [S10614] "Sir William Cary (1437-1471)" biography, which was abstracted, downloaded and published Thursday, March 9th, 2017 by Da.

    7. [S10390] "Mary Boleyn" biography, abstracted, downloaded and published Tuesday, February 14th, 2017 by David A. Hennessee, info@c.