Patrick Cary
Patrick Cary, originally named John Patrick Cary, was born in Ireland into a large family in the early 17th century. His father, who served as the lord deputy of Ireland, and his mother, Elizabeth, faced significant challenges, including poverty and religious strife, particularly after Elizabeth converted to Roman Catholicism. Following a tumultuous childhood marked by family upheaval and the loss of his father, Cary's life took him across England and parts of the Continent. He was taken in by his brother Lucius, who fostered a culturally rich environment but also a complicated religious dynamic that influenced Cary's spiritual journey.
Cary spent part of his youth in a Benedictine monastic school, where he developed a passion for poetry, initially reflecting his enjoyment of rural life. After moving to Rome at the urging of his mother, he became well-connected in literary circles, meeting notable figures like John Milton and Richard Crashaw. However, the political turmoil of the time, particularly the Puritan Revolution, led to personal tragedies and challenges that strained his faith. Ultimately, Cary renounced monastic aspirations, converted to Protestantism, and settled into a more stable life in England. He married Susan Uvedale, fathered a son, and received several county appointments before passing away in March 1657, leaving behind a legacy as a poet shaped by his tumultuous experiences.
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Patrick Cary
Poet
- Born: c. 1623
- Died: March 1, 1657
Biography
Patrick Cary was born John Patrick Cary, one of eleven children, to Henry and Elizabeth Cary. His father was lord deputy of Ireland at the time of Patrick's birth; Patrick was born in Ireland but was soon removed to England with his family in 1625. His mother made the crossing with the children, and his father followed soon thereafter. This first trip would presage a stormy life to come.
During this time, the plague was rampant, so Elizabeth took her family to her mother’s house in Oxfordshire, moving them the next year to London. Because Elizabeth had converted to Roman Catholicism in 1626, her husband and mother disowned her, refusing to provide any further support. Penury and near- starvation had the young Cary and his siblings going for meals and provisions to those who would prove to be longtime benefactors—the ladies of the court. Queen Henrietta Maria, for example, contributed to his family’s welfare for years, until the Parliament placed demands on Cary’s father to provide financial support.
Apart from his survival woes, young Cary endured his parents’ fighting over money (it is said the impetuous and generous Elizabeth would spend beyond her means), religion, and marital and familial obligations. He was shuttled between England and Ireland and then between England and parts of the Continent.
By 1633, Cary’s parents had reconciled, but the reunion and efforts to work things out were short-lived: Cary’s father, riding horseback one day, fell from the mount and fractured his leg. At the same time, Charles I came to assist Henry Cary, who leapt to his feet in deference—exacerbating the breaks, which surgeons failed to set properly and which brought gangrene. The condition required amputation, but again the surgeons failed, this time in closing the wound properly. Cary’s father, after seeing his children one last time, hemorrhaged to death.
Because of Elizabeth’s religious convictions, and probably also her spending propensities, her parents had turned the Tanfield riches over to the eldest child, Lucius, who was now second viscount Falkland. He took in young Cary (about eleven years old) and four of his siblings. Though the home of his brother was a culturally stimulating one—with the scholarly and philosophical Lucius Cary hosting writers, statesmen, and intellectuals of the day—the evidence does not necessarily point to this time as the starting point for Patrick Cary’s writing career.
It was, however, a time of religious development. Cary and another brother, Henry, were tutored by William Chillingworth, a former Catholic convert who was prompting the children. At the same time, Lucius would undertake “disputation” with his young brother, who, it is reported, was secretly leaning toward Catholicism, privately fasting in observation of certain holy days.
Cary’s horrified mother went about arranging a kidnapping, one which took place in early May 1636, in the dark of early morning. One more series of escapades would embellish young Cary’s life, for the men hired to sail the children to London were too drunk to do so, and the boys had to hide, under the auspices of the owner of the boat, who argued so loudly with the intoxicated men that Abingdon citizens alerted the constable. He, a friend of one of the horsemen, allowed the boys to be returned to Elizabeth Cary. When their mother was confronted by Lucius and the Privy Council with relentless questioning, the boys were made to move from house to house until they could make their journey—three weeks later—to France.
These events would influence Cary to “avow himself Roman Catholic,” but he would reconvert to Anglicanism. Religion, however, would not become the subject of his poetry. His poems were first and most heavily marked by his new country life: Admitted to the Benedictine monastic school, Saint Edmund’s Priory, on November 2, 1636, Cary wrote of his enjoyment of the “wholesome, harmelesse Exercise” of a rural lifestyle, as opposed to the “gawdy/bawdy” ways of the urban lifestyle.
Two years later, Cary’s mother directed his move to Rome, Italy, where she said he would have access to better connections, and where Cary, now about fourteen, would enter the English Benedictine way of life. He would stay for twelve years. In the meantime, he would begin work on his devotional and pastoral poems, both of which would eventually be followed by (and interspersed with) secular works and political satires. Well connected, he was recommended to the famous poet John Milton on November 5, 1644; on December 27, 1646, Cary dined with visiting poet Richard Crashaw; and at the bequest of the queen, Cary was recommended to the last pope, Urban VIII, who provided him with a pension that continued his support.
By 1650, however, Cary’s oldest and next oldest brothers Lucius and Lorenzo had died fighting in the Puritan Revolution for the Cavalier cause; Urban VIII had died (in 1644); his nephew Barberini was “out of favour”; and Innocent X provided no support. Cary came close to renouncing his faith, relenting only when he was convinced that he was needed and obligated to “continue the family lineage.”
After three and a half months as a novice and an authentic attempt to devote himself to God, Cary was finished with the notion of becoming a monk. He returned to England, converted to Protestantism, and accepted the invitation by the Uvedales to live in their “bustling household.”
After a quarter of a century of chaos, turmoil, and almost constant uprooting, Patrick Cary was finally at peace. Two years later, he was ready to end his visit to the hospitable family, and he moved into Lincoln’s Inn. He later married Susan Uvedale, moved to Dublin, and had a son, Edward, in 1656. He was given several county appointments and would die a fairly happy poet in March of 1657.