1582, Carey was appointed captain-general of the Isle of Wight. In 1584 he procured for the borough of Newport the privilege of returning members to parliament, his brother Edmund being one of those first chosen; and the bailiffs and burgesses granted to Carey full power during his life to nominate one of the members for their borough. In 1585-6 two ships belonging to him captured a vessel which, as he alleged, belonged to Spain, but which was claimed by Stephen Damaskette, an inhabitant of St.Jean de Luz, on behalf of himself and other merchants of that place.
In February 1586-7, the queen, having had information of a design to surprise the Isle of Wight, authorised Carey to take a view and muster of the trained bands in certain hundreds of Hampshire for the defense of that island. Immediately afterwards he caused the castles and forts in the island to be put in a state of thorough repair. The site of Carey's sconce is even yet pointed out. When England was threatened by the armada of Spain, Carey was remarkably vigilant in the Isle of Wight. The gentry of the island complained of his arbitrary conduct, and were much offended at his assuming the title of governor. He cited before the privy coucil one of the complaints, Sir George Dillington, who in or about November 1588 was committed by them to the fleet.
Sir John Oglander in his 'Memoirs' commends Carey for residing in the castle of Carisbrook and for his great hospitality there, and speaks of the time of his government as the period when the Isle of Wight was in its most flourishing state. He relates with much apparent satisfaction that 'in Sir George Carey's time an attorney coming to settle in the island was, by his command, with a pound of candles hanging at his breech lighted, with bells about his legs, hunted owte of the island.'
In 1589 he was sent on an embassy to Scotland. The privy council, on 4 June 1592, empowered Carey and Richard Young to examine in Bridewell Owen Edmondes, an Irishman, charged with treasonable practices, who had obstinately refused to confess. The accounts of the parish of Lambeth for that year make mention of a visit by the queen to Carey, whose name occurs in the commission for causes ecclesiastical within the diocese of Winchester, issued 7 June 1596 and 10 October 1597.
He succeeded to the peerage as Lord Hunsdon on the death of his father (23 July 1596). He likewise succeeded him as captain of the band of pensioners, being sworn of the privy council and invested with the order of the Garter.
In March 1596-7 he was appointed lord chamberlain of the household. His name is on the general commission for the suppression of schism, issued on 24 Nov. 1599. He died on 9 Sept. 1603. He married Elizabeth [see Carey, Elizabeth Lady], daughter of Sir John Spencer of Althorpe, knight, by whom he had an only daughter and heiress, Elizabeth [see under Carey, Lady Elizabeth], who married Sir Thomas Berkeley, knight, son and heir of Henry, lord Berkeley.
He was the author of: 1. Instruction and orders by him as captain-general of the Isle of Wight for the good government of the island, for the training of soldiers and firing of beacons, and agreed to by the centioners of the said isle, 20 March 1583-4; Lansdowne MS.40, art. 8. 2. Proofs that the prize taken by his two ships did not appertain to the merchants of St. Jean de Luz; manuscripts in the State Paper Office, and Lansdowne MS. 143, f. 406. 3. Orders for the better state and strengthening of the Isle of Wight, 1586; manuscript in the State Paper Office. 4. Answer to complaints made by the States, 4 July 1589; Lansdowne MS. 145, f. 183. 5. Letters, principally on state affairs.
In 1862 miniature portraits of this Lord Hunsdon and his wife were exhibited at the South Kensington Museum, together with his exquisite jewel known as the Hunsdon onyx.
[Ames's Typogr. Antiq. (Herbert), 954, 1140, 1275; Birch's Elizabeth, ii. 282; Calendars of English State Papers; Cat. of Special Exhibition at South Kensington, 1862, pp. 188, 196, 214, 680; Cooper's Athenæ Cantab. iii. 6; Letters of Elizabeth and James VI, 1, 2; Ellis's Letters, 2nd series, iii. 97, 100; Gage's Thingoe, 104; Jardine on Torture, 29, 38, 82, 94; Lodge's Illustrations (1838), ii. 525, iii. 24; Lysons's Environs, i. 313; Murdin's State Papers, 768, 769; Nichols's Progresses of Queen Elizabeth, iii. 10, 19, 27, 449, 557; Rymer's Fœdera (1715), xvi. 291, 324, 386, 421, 446, 488; Sharp's Northern Rebellion, 116, 121; Thomas's Hist. Notes, 401, 450; Thorpe's Cal. of Scottish State Papers, 425-7, 431, 432, 463, 543, 557; Tyler's Scotland (1864), iii. 315, iv. 50, 52; Worsley's Isle of Wight, 96-107, 152, Append. No. xviii.; Wright's Elizabeth, ii. 265.]
CAREY, GEORGE JACKSON (1822–1872), major-general, was a son of Thomas Carey of Rozel, Guernsey, by his second wife, the daughter of Colonel George Jackson, Mayo militia, and M.P. county Mayo. He was born on 5 Oct. 1822, and educated at Elizabeth College, Guernsey. In July 1845 he obtained an ensigncy in the old Cape Mounted Riflemen, with which he served in the Kaffir wars of 1846-7 and 1850-2 (medal),
