woman," whom he remembered handsomely in his will for “her careful and diligent attendance on me in the tyme of my sicknes."

On February 19, 1617, he died, being in his seventy-seventh year, and was buried in Cockington Church.1

His associate in Ireland, Sir George Carew, the late president of Munster, now Baron Carew of Clopton, and later Earl of Totnes, announced the death in a letter to Sir Thomas Rowe, dated February, 1617:2

My old shakynge kinsman, Sir George Cary, sometymes Lord Deputy of Irland, is dead, and his wife is now a riche widdow.

It is a satisfaction to know that Lettice Cary did not long remain a widow but during the same year, 1617, married a man of her own age, Sir Arthur Lake.3

Sir George Cary's will, dated August 7, 1614,* is an interesting document in several respects. It affords a glimpse of the state maintained at Cockington House in its enumeration of that

1 Prince (182), followed by Vivian (151), makes the date 1615/6, but Mr. Dymond (H. & G., viii, 84, 121) shows by the manor court rolls that Sir George was still alive on November 21, 1616; his will (P.C.C. Weldon, 47) was not proved until May 22, 1617, thereby confirming Sir George Carew's statement that the date was 1617. See also Inq. p.m., 15 Jas. I, pt. 2, No. 195.

2 Letters of George, Lord Carew, Camden Society, 86.

3 Vivian, 151, and Dict. Nat. Biog. (reissue ed.), xi, 419. 4 Proved May 22, 1617. P.C.C. Weldon, 47. See also Inq.

p.m., 15 Jas. I, pt. 2, No. 195.

famous plate the sudden removal of which from Dublin had caused gossip in 1605. In making bequests to his wife from his personal estate Cary wishes "that my meanes were such as I might, accordinge to my desire in a more bountifull measure answer her love & care of me," and proceeds to bequeath

unto the Lady Lettice Cary, my deare and most Beloved and esteemed Ladye & Wife . . . my best basin and ewer gilt, and two of my best silver potts gilt, belonging or used in service with the same; on greate broad silver cuppe gilt with his cover commonly called the Catte; fower standinge silver boles gilt with their covers gilt, the forme of a Swanne standinge on the toppe of every of the said covers; three standinge silver cuppes gilt with their covers gilt on every on of which covers standeth a piramidist on the toppe; two other standynge cuppes gilt, with their covers gilt, usually standinge in the cupboard in her chamber: . . . my two greate Saltes with on cover gilt & the trencher salt gilt commonly used with the same twelve silver dishes of fower several sorts or sizes; on dozen of silver gilt spoones; on silver warminge panne; six silver candle sticks . . my best and fayrest Turkey carpett ... the hanginges, Bedsteades, Beddinge and furniture of three several chambers to weete, of the chamber over the greate p'lor, of the chamber wherein I usually lye, & of the chamber wherein she her self doth usually lye.

But the will leads us also to a conjecture in conclusion. On his return from Ireland Cary had evidently felt the obligation of his position. and estate to do something handsome in the way of charity. Remembering his experience as a

trustee of Sir William Cordell's hospital years before, he determined on a foundation of the same kind of his own. So he created a trust, charging £30 per annum upon Cockington, for the establishment upon the estate of seven almshouses, consisting, says Prince,1 of "so many apartments all under one roof, for seven poor people of that parish, every one having a ground room and a chamber over, with a little distinct herb garden enclosed with a stone wall: to each of which also he allowed one shilling per week, with a new frieze gown and a new shirt or shift yearly at Christmas."

This may have been done out of mere worldly pride, but the will shows that by 1614 his mind had softened and turned not only to charity but to piety. The religious preamble, conventional in wills of the period, has more than a conventional tone and form, indeed something of fer

vor:

Being myndfull of the ffraylty of man's fleche always declyninge, the necessitye of death continually approachinge, and the uncertainty of his dissolucion sudenly stealinge on hym: and withall knowinge itt expedyent in the tyme of health to dispose of my temporall affairs, that, so beinge ffreed of all Terrene and worldly cares at my last ffarewell and passage hence, I may give myself wholy unto Spirituall and ghostly matters for the health and eternal comfort and joy of my Soule, Doe therefor att this present, being of whole 1 Worthies of Devon, 182.