Stanford Rivers by H. M. Scott – The Carey Family

(See list of Lords of the Manor, 1524–1536)

The brief story of the Careys cannot be told without reference to Mary Carey's family, the Boleyns.

Sir Thomas Boleyn

Sir Thomas Boleyn was the grandson of a wealthy London merchant, Sir Geoffrey, who was Lord Mayor in 1457. Sir Thomas married the daughter of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk, and they had three children, George, Anne and Mary.

While his daughter held the King's favours, he was created Viscount Rochford, Earl of Wiltshire (1529) and given the Earldom of Ormonde. (This Earldom of Wiltshire should not be confused with that held by the Staffords in the 15th century.)

He was Treasurer of the Royal Household. He died at Hever Castle, Kent, in 1538, two years after his unhappy son, George, and daughter Anne. On his death the Wiltshire title became extinct.

George Boleyn

George Boleyn, born 1505, held the position of a Court Envoy but when his sister Anne (see below) fell into disfavour he was placed in the Tower, executed and attainted in 1536.

Anne Boleyn

Anne Boleyn, born 1507. The story of her marriage to Henry VIII in 1532 and her unhappy ending in 1536 is too well known to require repetition.

Mary Boleyn (Carey)

Mary Boleyn (Carey), the younger sister of Anne, was born in 1503. After a short stay in France she returned to England in 1520. She became the Mistress of the King prior to her sister's wedding.

When Henry VIII became enamoured with Anne, he brought about Mary's marriage to William Carey. In 1528 she inherited Carey's Manor of Stanford Rivers and held it until it was taken by the Crown in 1536. After her husband's death she married Sir William Stafford.

William Carey

William Carey's ancestors were seated at Cockington in Devon. Sir John Carey was Baron of the Exchequer to Richard II.

William was a favourite of Henry VIII, and as mentioned above, the King probably engineered his marriage to Mary Boleyn. The King granted him the Manor of Stanford Rivers in 1524. He died in 1528.

His daughter, Catherine, married Sir Francis Knollis, K.G.

Henry Carey

Henry Carey, son of William and Mary, was born in 1524. Being a cousin of Queen Elizabeth I, she created him Baron Hunsdon and made him, in 1559, a Knight of the Garter. He also became the Queen's Lord Chamberlain.

He was placed in charge of Mary, Queen of Scots, during her confinement at Tutbury, Staffordshire.

On his deathbed, in 1596, he was visited, at Somerset House, by Queen Elizabeth who offered him the Earldom of Wiltshire, but he refused the honour.

A monument to his memory is in Westminster Abbey. His daughter married Sir Thomas Berkeley – this may be the key to the, so far, unexplained association of the Berkeley family with Stanford Rivers?

The Barony of Hunsdon continued in the Carey family until the 8th Baron died in 1765.