The monument
to Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon (1525-1596) in St John the Baptist’s
chapel is the tallest in the Abbey at thirty-six feet high. It is made
of alabaster and marble with a considerable display of heraldry, which
includes the Carey arms – argent, on a bend sable three roses of the
field (ie. a silver shield with a black bar diagonally across it from
top left to bottom right with three silver roses on it). His crest is
a swan and his motto “Comme je trouve” (as I find it). The Latin
inscription can be translated as:
“Consecrated
for the burial of the Hunsdon family. Here sleeps in the Lord
Henry Carey, Baron Hunsdon, one-time Governor of the town of Berwick,
Warden of the east marches towards Scotland, Captain of the gentleman-pensioners,
Chief Justice of the Forests south of the Trent, Knight of the Order
of the Garter, Lord Chamberlain of the Lady Queen Elizabeth, sworn of
the Privy Council, and first cousin to the aforesaid Queen. Together
with him is buried Anne, his dearest wife, daughter of Thomas Morgan,
knight, who bore him many children, of whom there survive George, John,
Edmund and Robert, knights, Catherine, Countess of Nottingham, Philadelphia,
Baroness Scrope, and Margaret, Lady Hoby. He died 23 July 1596 aged
71. His son, George Carey, Baron Hunsdon, member of the Order of the
Garter, Captain-General of the Isle of Wight, Chamberlain of the household
to Queen Elizabeth, Privy Councillor, and his wife Anne, placed this
monument to the best of fathers and dearest of husbands, in his honour
and memory, and being mindful of their own and their family’s mortality.”
Henry was the
only son of William Carey (or Cary) (d.1529) and Mary, daughter of Thomas
Boleyn (or Bullen), Earl of Wiltshire, and sister of Anne. Mary was
a mistress of Henry VIII and some said the king was actually the father
of her child. In 1545 Henry Carey married Anne, daughter of Sir Thomas
Morgan of Arkestone in Herefordshire. He was created Baron Hunsdon of
Hunsdon (in Hertfordshire) in 1559 and died at Somerset House in London.
The Queen paid for his funeral at the Abbey. The inscription is curious
in that it must have been composed while George and Catherine were still
alive (both died 1603) and it anticipates that Anne would be buried
there even though she did not actually die until 19 January 1607.
Other members
of the family buried with Henry and Anne in the vault beneath this chapel
include George, 2nd Baron Hunsdon (d.1603) and his wife Elizabeth (Spencer)
(d.1618), Anne Carey (d.1661), daughter of the 4th Baron and Robert
Carey, 7th Baron (d.1702). Henry’s sister, Dame Catherine Knollys
(d.1569), is buried in St Edmund’s chapel in the Abbey.
A photograph of the monument can be purchased from Westminster Abbey Library.
Further reading
“Oxford Dictionary
of National Biography” 2004
“The Complete
Peerage”
Hunsdon wills
can be ordered via the National Archives website.