CAREW (George), brother to the subject of the last article, was educated in the university of Oxford, after which he studied the law in the inns of court, and then travelled to foreign countries for farther improvement. On his return to his native country, he was called to the bar, and after some time was appointed secretary to Sir Christopher Hatton lord chancellor of England. This was by the especial recommendation of queen Elizabeth herself, who gave him a prothonotaryship in the chancery, and conferred upon him the honour of knighthood. In 1597, Sir George Carew, who was then a master in chancery, was sent ambassador to the king of Poland. In the next reign, he was one of the commissioners for treating with the Scotch concerning an union between the two kingdoms; after which he was appointed ambassador to the court of France, where he continued from the latter end of the year 1605 till
1609. During his residence in that country, he formed an intimacy with Thuanus, to whom he communicated an account of the transactions in Poland whilst he was employed there, which was of great service to that admirable author in drawing up the 121st book of his history. After Sir George Carew's return from France, he was advanced to the important post of master of the court of Wards, which honourable situation he did not long live to enjoy; for it appears from a letter written by Thuanus to Camden in the spring of 1613, that he was then lately deceased. Sir George Carew married Thomarine, daughter of Sir Francis Godolphin, great-grandfather of the lord treasurer Godolphin, and had by her two sons and three daughters. When Sir George Carew returned, in 1609, from his French embassy, he drew up, and addressed to James I. "A Relation of the State of France, with the characters of Henry IV. and the principal Persons of that Court." The characters are drawn from personal knowledge and close observation, and might be of service to a general historian of that period. The composition is perspicuous and manly, and entirely free from the pedantry which prevailed in the reign of James I. but this is the less surprising, as Sir George Carew's taste had been formed in a better era, that of queen Elizabeth. The valuable tract we are speaking of lay for a long time in MS. till happily falling into the hands of the earl of Hardwicke, it was communicated by him to Dr Birch, who published it, in 1749, at the end of his "Historical View of the Negotiations between the Courts of England, France, and Brussels, from 1592 to 1617." That intelligent and industrious writer justly observes, that it is a model upon which ambassadors may form and digest their notions and representations; and the late celebrated poet Mr Gray hath spoken of it as an excellent performance.