Henry Cary (1717–1769) was the last surviving child of Rev Mordecai Cary, D.D., Bishop of Killala (1687–1751) and Catherine Courthorpe.
He was baptised on 2 June 1717 at London’s St Andrew Undershaft church while his father was rector of St Katherine Coleman, an old church which was demolished in 1734, rebuilt in 1741; and closed and demolished in 1926.
In 1731, his father was appointed as chaplain to Lionel Sackville, 1st Duke of Dorset, and accompanied him to Ireland on Sept 11, 1731 where Sackville was sworn in as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.[1] Seven months later, on 1 April 1732, Mordecai was consecrated Bishop of Clonfert, co Galway. On the Duke's visit in 1735,[2] he consecrated Mordecai as Bishop of Killala, co Mayo.
Henry attended Trinity College, Dublin from 1733, graduating in 1737.[3] He was appointed Prebendary of Lackan in 1741[4] and became Archdeacon of Killala in 1742, serving under his father.[5] The Dean of Killala, at the time, was Theophilus Brocas, whose daughter, Henrietta, married Henry's son, William.
The young couple were married at St Mary's Church, Mary Street, Dublin, on 12 February 1742/3 by prerogative lycence (sic),[6] The Dublin Gazette of Tuesday 15 February 1742/3 reads
"Rev. Henry Cary, son of the Bishop of Killala was on last Saturday married to Miss Mary DEERING, a young lady of great beauty, merit and a fortune of £5000 sterling."
The Cary's had at least five children:
The birth of a daughter was announced in April 1747,[10] but she did not survive and is possibly one of the four grandchildren buried near Bishop Mordecai in Killala Cathedral.
Mary died in Trim on 1 July 1756,[11] leaving four boys whose ages ranged from five to thirteen. Henry Cary resettled in Portarlington, County Laois which is 133 miles by road from Killala, but continued as Archdeacon of Killala. Three months after the death of his first wife, he married Deborah Hamon at St Paul's French Church, Portarlington, on 2 October 1756. She was the daughter of Huguenot, Isaac Hamon, Lieut-Col of the Queen's Regiment of Foot, and niece of Colonel Hector Hamon. They went on to have four more children:
In Henry's will, proved 1769, he states that he had purchased a lieutenancy of foot for his son, William; an ensigncy for Robert, with money paid out for a lieutenancy of foot for him also; and £300 to set up his son, Charles, as a merchant in Dublin. The will, which was witnessed by Peter Hamon, William Burrell, and Edward Geoghegan, also bestowed an annuity of £30 on Hector Hamon (possibly brother of Deborah's father, Isaac, and father of Peter, the witness to the will). The house in Portarlington and a nearby farm at Westmeath were settled on his eldest son, Henry.
The seal on the Archdeacon's will was a swan rising, claiming a link to the Carys of Devon. His father's seal had the episcopal arms of Killala and three roses on a bend, also arms of the Devon Carys.
At the time of the Archdeacon's death, Henry, jnr, was 26, newly married to Anne Gore with a child of his own, and with the added responsibility of six younger siblings to care for, the youngest being only two years of age. The second eldest son, William, was already away in the army.
Henry is buried in the churchyard of French Church, Portarlington. His grave is nestled in the right angle of two low stone walls, directly behind the church.The headstone reads:
Sacred to the memory of the
Rev Archdeacon Henry
Cary who departed this life
the 27th of October 1769 in
the 52nd Year of his Age.
This stone is laid by his
afflicted Widow Deborah.
Deborah Hamon-Cary, the Archdeacon's widow, died in 1796.
Other headstones of some of the Archdeacon's descendants can also be seen in the churchyard of the French Church, Portarlington: