Castle Cary in County Somerset, England, is the site of five or more
fortifications including:
Bronze Age mound forts from 2000 – 1000 BCE
Iron Age earthen ramparts from 1000 – 500 BCE
Saxon caers (forts) from 750 – 1066 CE
Walter de Douai’s motte & bailey (palisaded hill & outer wall) 1066CE
William Lupellus stone castle 1138 CE
After 1200 CE, the stone castle was dismantled to build Cary Manor and the
village of Castle Cary.
When my brother and I visited the village in 1991, the locals were quick to
let us know that the castle, the manor, and the village were named for the
brook that runs through the village. Cary is a Celtic word for a running
stream. No notable Carys, Careys, or Karis (including Adam) have ever lived,
much less governed, there. Adam de Kari was apparently invented and added to
the pedigree by Sir William of Clovelly, a real person who inspired the novel “
Westward Ho.” Clovelly is well worth visiting.
According to Fairfax Harrison, the true homeland of the Cary nobility is in
Devon. In the Doomsday Book of 1085-86 CE, it is identified as two manors on
the banks of a stream that begins at a spring in Broadbury Down and flows
through a pleasant valley into the River Tamar. On modern British Ordnance
maps, the stream is called the River Carey. All that remains of one manor is
the village of Downicary. The manor across the river from Downicary is
called Panneston in the Doomsday Book. Around 1241, Panneston was divided and
the part along the west bank of the stream was named Kari. On modern British
Ordnance maps, those names appear as Panson and Carey. Kary manor was
inherited by an heiress of Ralph and Walter de Panneston. Her husband was called
William de Cary. Tradition says that he was the grandson of Adam Kari, the
founder of the Cary family in Devon. To distinguish the manor on the west side
of River Carey form the one on the east side, it was called Upcary. Upcary
wss upstream from Downicary and Downicary was downstream from Upcary. On
modern british Ordnance maps, Upcary is called Carey Barton. A “Barton” is a
large fam. The forest just south of Carey Barton is called Carey Wood. These
are the places to visit to see the Devon Cary’s, Bristol Cary’s, and
Massachusetts Carey’s oldest known English homelands.
David Carey