Henry Cary, 4th Viscount Falkland

Henry Cary, 4th Viscount Falkland (1634 – April 2, 1663) was a Scottish nobleman and Member of the Parliament of England; the son of Lucius Cary, 2nd Viscount Falkland. [ [http://www.thepeerage.com/p2637.htm#i26367 thePeerage.com] ]

Cary inherited his title after his brother Lucius Cary died in 1649. Henry Cary like his father and elder brother, had Royalist sympathises and during the early years of the Interregnum his movements were monitored by the Council of State, but after William Lockhart, the Protector's ambassador in Paris, had assessed him, he was no longer perceived to be a serious threat to the new establishment.David L. Smith, ‘Cary, Henry, fourth Viscount Falkland (bap. 1634, d. 1663)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online edn, Oxford University Press, May 2005; online edn, Jan 2008 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/46762, accessed 20 Feb 2008] ]

Cary sat as a Member of Parliament for Oxfordshire in the Third Protectorate Parliament (1659) where he opposed recognition of the Other House. During the second Commonwealth period he sided against the Officers in charge of the New Model Army in London and was arrested for involvement in the proposed 1659 Royalist rising and sent to the Tower of London. In February 1660 he threw himself behind General George Monck when with other Oxfordshire gentry signed a declaration calling for a free parliament. The next month he was appointed justice of the peace and a commissioner for the militia for Oxfordshire.

Cary was returned as Member of Parliament for both Oxford and Arundel (Sussex) choosing to sit for the former in the Convention Parliament. He was an active in this parliament supporting Anglican and Royalists cause, and he was selected as one of the twelve members chosen to visit King Charles II in Holland and crossed the channel with the King. While Charles was in Canterbury, Cary returned to London caring a letter from the King to Parliament.

During the debates over the Indemnity and Oblivion Bill Cary "took a strong line towards the regicides, and argued that any member who had sat in the high court of justice should be excluded from the house. Regarding individual parliamentarians, he wished to make William Sydenham and John Pyne liable for any penalty short of death, and he opposed the limited punishment proposed for Francis Lascelles."

In June 1660, shortly after the Restoration of King Charles II Cary was made a colonel of horse and gentleman of the privy chamber. From then until his sudden death in 1663 he was active at court and Royal service. During this time he was re-elected as Member of Parliament for Oxfordshire the Cavalier Parliament as well as holding various military commissions. He supported the crown during the debates on the Militia Bill that affirmed the crown's powers over the armed forces, but was in disfavour with some at court over his ardent support for the Act of Uniformity making clear his dislike of both Catholics and dissenters and not accepting the governments line that tolerance should be shown. In 1661 he appointed colonel of foot in the Dunkirk garrison. Some time during 1661 or 1662 he was elected to the Irish parliament and spent some time there, and in October 1662 after his regiment was disbanded in he was appointed captain of a troop of horse in Ireland, the same month he returned to London to resume his work on committees in the Commons. . While in Ireland he

Cary was the author of the paly "The Marriage Night", set in Castile it had themes of tragedy and revenge, of which Samuel Pepys wrote in his diary after seeing it "a kind of a tragedy, and some things very good in it, but the whole together, I thought, not so" (Diary of Samuel Pepys, 21 March 1667).

On April 14, 1653, Cary married Rachel Hungerford. They had one son: Anthony Cary, 5th Viscount Falkland (1656–1694). Rachel Hungerford twice remarried, one of her husbands being Sir James Hayes (d. 1693). She died at Bedgebury in Kent on 24 February 1718.

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