Protestant Devonian Gentlemen

Thomas Carew



Huguenot influence on Protestant Devonian gentlemen in 16^th c

My view of life is based on my own personal experience and external influences by friends, family and society. There are things that we cannot know through our own personal experience, so we require others to inform us of them. When I think of figures from history I can have no real sense of who they are without relying on others and their view of that historical figure even from the historical figure, I am reliant on their own experience and view of life. So in looking at how Huguenot’s had influence on Protestant Devonian gentleman in the 16^th century it is helpful to look at Familial relationships, in effect what is passed from one family member to another, how they think, how they are influenced, what beliefs they have and in what context these views sit.

I started to think this way due to the historian Mathew Lyons as he was interested in a friend of Walter Ralegh called Peter Carew who had lodged at the Inner temple with Ralegh. Peter Carew had been fined for recusancy in 1580, His brother William Carew had been fined for recusancy in 1582 and imprisoned. Their father Thomas Carew had been a Justice of the peace, but was suspended in 1577 for his religious leanings and the assumption had been made by commentators that the family were Roman Catholic. Thomas Carew was Lord of Haccombe a manor west of the Teign Estuary in Devon. The Carews in Devon for the most part were fervent protestants. So did we have a situation like the Throckmorton family that Ralegh married into, one half being protestant and the other half Roman Catholic. In my mind the idea that this particular Carew family were Roman Catholic did not sit easily with my knowledge of the Carews and their wider family, cousins and kinfolk. Richard Carew of Antony once stated that “all Cornish gentleman are my cousins” and in my view this statement applied to Devon as well and we must not forget the women. This raises the question of could this particular Carew family be Roman Catholic when all their cousins and associates were fervent protestants. I also noticed that when I go looking round old churches looking for signs of my ancestors, a hobby I bore people with incidentally. I noticed that the people who look after the Churches all church of England now, all say the same thing (Usually little old ladies) “we were all catholic once” and condemn the reformation and in particular do not like my ancestor Thomas Cromwell. I also notice a lot of historians are not keen on Thomas Cromwell either, which in my mind is an irrational prejudice probably based on their own view of life. I can see the point of view that a lot of the history in churches disappeared, things that we would want to view today from an historical perspective. Sir Pennywell tweets on the wave of Iconoclasm that affected churches. However from my own view of life protestant falling off to atheist this is how churches should look, white walls, plain, no candles and no Iconography. Or as Mathew Lyons describes Ralegh’s view of life in his book the Favorite “Humanist scepticism met Protestant certainty” which is how I would imagine all protestant gentlemen in Devon thought in the 16^th century and primarily the Carews and the Champernownes. I would also add that there were also protestants prior to the reformation that created the environment for the reformation to happen; in affect the reformation wasn’t contrary to everyone’s expectations at the time. Raleghs own mother Catherine Champernowne converted to Protestantism early in Henry VIIIs reign and stood steadfast against giving it up in Mary’s reign. Ralegh’s father was also locked up in St Sidwell’s Church tower in Exeter for his protestant views and was threatened with execution. Ralegh’s parents being so steadfastly protestant must have had an affect on him and seemingly enough for him to sign up with Henry Champernowne fighting for the Huguenots in the French wars alongside Gawen Champernowne.

Henry Champernowne was married to Catherine Edgecumbe the sister of a little known Devon poet Anne Dowriche nee’ Edgecumbe who wrote “The French History” The poem highlights the struggle of the French protestant Huguenots and centres mostly around the Bartholomew Massacre of 1572. The interesting thing about Anne Dowriches poem is that it highlights the familial relationships, information passing between closely knit Devon families, men and women and in particular families such as the Carews, Champernownes, Dennys, Edgecumbes. I think it also highlights “Protestant certainty” in effect this is the way things should be and the heartfelt pain and sorrow for French protestant Huguenots in their struggle.
The poet Anne Dowriche was also a cousin of Sir Peter Carew and his brother Sir George Carew Admiral of the fleet who sank and drowned on the Mary Rose. In 1546 Sir Arthur Champernowne married Sir George’s widow Mary Norrey’s the daughter of Sir Henry Norrey’s. If I were to choose two Devonian fervent protestant gentlemen to stand shoulder to shoulder with Ralegh and Drake it would be Sir Peter Carew and Sir Arthur Champernowne. Sir Peter and Sir Arthur had great influence over family and protestant associates and the familial links would have reached Joan Champernowne and Kat Astley who are thought to be sisters. The significance of this is that Joan and Kat are probably as close to mothers of Elizabeth I as she could have. Elizabeth must have thought of the Champernownes and their cousins as her own family, so no wonder she had time for the son of a Champernowne Walter Ralegh.

The St Bartholomew Massacre on the 23^rd August 1572 was a pivotal point for Devonian Protestant gentlemen as it was for the French wars of religion. The protestant Calvinist Huguenot elite had been assassinated and Huguenot followers had been massacred by a Roman Catholic mob. This imprinted on Devonian protestants an unpalatable distaste for Catholicism a religion that was seen as bloody and untrustworthy. The 1570s became a boiling point of zealous Protestantism fuelled by German Calvinistic preachers and Huguenot refugee’s that flocked to Devon.
In the bright light of this surge of Puritan Protestantism sit the Carew, family of Haccombe fined for recusancy imprisoned and labelled by history as presumed Roman Catholic, despite all their familial connections. Thomas Carew had been a commissioner of Subsidy Rolls for Haytor and Stanborough hundreds in 1576.His fellow commissioners were William, Bishop of Exeter, Sir Arthur Champernowne and William Strode grandson of Elizabeth Seymour and great grandson of Thomas Cromwell; not the sort of people to entertain sitting with Roman Catholics in the 1570’s.

With further investigation I found an original document signed by William Carew, which were notes on the History of Christianity in England and the authority of the church. The document is over four hundred years old, damaged and in scratchy undecipherable writing; what I did detect was zealousness to his writing, quoting psalms with alacrity. With this document are nine other documents all containing religious arguments refuting Roman Catholic practices and I would suggest a call for the renewal of the church on the more austere principles of continental reformers. More translation and interpretation of the documents are needed, but there are preliminary notes made by an archivist. One of the documents have notes taken from the New Testament, St Augustine and St Cyprian to disprove the existence of purgatory, a distinctly Roman catholic belief. There are also notes on transubstantiation referencing Bishop Jewell’s answers to Dr Harding in response to a letter from a Roman Catholic. William Carew also asked the arch Bishop of Canterbury to appoint Zacherie Hooker the son of John Hooker to the post of Arch priest of Haccombe; a particularly fervent protestant family. His father Thomas Carew had previously appointed John Woolton Bishop of Exeter to the same post. John Woolton sought out zealous and liberal patrons and when his own son turned to Catholicism “for his lewdness layd him in a common jayle with irons upon him.

It is clear that history has done this Carew family an injustice in assuming they were Roman Catholics that had been fined and jailed for recusancy. It is now clear the Carews like their Devonian cousins were fervent protestants, but also clear that they questioned the now established church of England with more zealous protestant leanings. Thomas Carew died of jail fever in 1586; his brass plaque can be viewed in St Blaise Church, Haccombe.