CAREW, Hon. Robert Shapland (1818-1881), of 28 Belgrave Square, London, Mdx. and Castleborough and Woodstown, co. Waterford

Robert Shapland Carew’s father and namesake was a substantial and enlightened landlowner, with holdings of more than 20,000 acres in counties Waterford and, more substantially, in Wexford, where he was an energetic local magistrate. He was also an experienced liberal parliamentarian who, as MP for County Wexford, 1812-30 and 1831-4, had consistently supported Catholic relief but was opposed to repeal.2HP Commons, 1790-1820, iii. 407; HP Commons, 1820-32: Robert Shapland Carew. Given Carew’s local popularity, his eldest son seemed destined for a political career, and with the assistance of Daniel O’Connell was elected without opposition for a vacancy at County Waterford in 1840 as a Whig reformer, citing his ‘thorough approval of the Irish policy of ministers’.3Bernstein, ‘Liberals’ in Power and Piety; Morning Chronicle, 27 Aug. 1840. His uncle, Robert Power, had sat for the seat in 1830-1. Speaking in support of Lord Morpeth’s Irish registration bill in Feb. 1841, he provided first-hand accounts of the abuses which attended the Irish registry courts. That June, he supported the beleaguered Whig ministry in the vote of confidence motion.4Hansard, 23 Feb. 1841, vol. lvi, cc.874-6; The Times, 7 June 1841.

At the ensuing general election he was returned unopposed alongside his fellow Liberal, William Villiers Stuart, but unlike his colleague, he opposed the arms bill of 1843, arguing that conciliation rather than ‘coercive and distrustful legislation’ was necessary to re-establish peace in Ireland. Speaking on the Irish church bill in Aug. 1843, he argued that Catholic claims on the issue should be recognised, and questioned the government’s intention ‘to keep up the Protestant establishment in Ireland, in its present overgrown and glaring deformity’.5Hansard, 30 May 1843, vol. lxix, cc.1112-4, 1 Aug. 1843, vol. lxxi, cc.161-5. Predictably, Carew followed the Liberal line by opposing the reintroduction of income tax in 1842 and supported free trade, voting for the repeal of the corn laws in 1846.6The Times, 18 Feb., 15 Apr. 1842, 18 May 1846. Though he supported the Maynooth grant, and voted for inquiries into Irish church temporalities and the general condition of Ireland during 1844-5, he had earlier been prepared to oppose O’Connell over the House’s acceptance of the Chartist petition in May 1842.

In August 1843, he joined 13 other Irish MPs in signing an address to the people of Great Britain, outlining Irish grievances and demanding recognition ‘of the right of the people of Ireland of all classes to an equal participation in religious and educational arrangements’.7See Daniel O’Connell’s address to the Repeal Association on 8 August 1843. Morning Chronicle, 10 Aug. 1843. By the time of the famine, however, both he and Villiers Stuart, the senior county member, were perceived in Waterford as Russellite Whigs, albeit, ‘decidedly amongst the most unexceptionable members of that party in Ireland’. Regardless of the fact that each was thought to be ‘absolutely faultless in the eyes of the mass of their constituents’, both men were forced to retire at the 1847 general election after two repeal candidates unexpectedly came forward.8Freeman’s Journal, 13, 14 Aug. 1847. Carew’s attempt to defend the ministry’s policy towards famine relief was dismissed by electors eager for a radical solution to the emergency. In 1851 he was spoken of as a Liberal candidate for a vacancy at Dungarvan, but opted not to stand.9Brian Walker, ‘Politicians, Elections and Catastrophe: The General Election of 1847’, Irish Political Studies, 22:1 (2007), 1-34. [17]; Freeman’s Journal, 14 Feb. 1851, and see History of Parliament, 1832-67: County Waterford, Dungarvan. At the following year’s general election, however, he contested County Wexford, where his father and grandfather, 1806-7, had sat.10HP Commons, 1790-1820, iii. 407. On the hustings, where his commitment to tenant-rights was questioned, he defended his record as a consistent advocate of popular principles and promised, if elected, to assist in the formation of an independent Irish party in Parliament. Despite polling a respectable 1,412 votes, he was beaten into fourth place.11Freeman’s Journal, 23 July 1852. His commitment to tenant-right was largely dismissed as opportunistic. Ibid., 5, 7 June 1852.

Carew succeeded to his father’s title in June 1856, and is only known to have spoken once in the Lords, to second the address to the Queen’s speech in December 1857. He was regarded as an excellent resident landlord and, in 1855, became colonel of the Wexford militia. He died at his residence in Belgrave Square in September 1881 and was buried at Castleborough, his will being proved under £43,480.12Ibid., 24 Jan. 1855; The Times, 12 Sept. 1881. He was succeeded by his eldest son Robert (1860-1932). Neither of his sons continued the family tradition of parliamentary representation.