John Carew (regicide)

John Carew
Contemporary print showing the Execution of Charles I (top), with regicides like Carew (bottom)
Nominated for Devon in Barebone's Parliament
In office
July 1653 – December 1653
English Council of State
In office
1651–1653
Member, Board of Admiralty
In office
1652–1654
Member of Parliament
for Tregony
In office
February 1647 – April 1653
Personal details
Born3 July 1622
Antony, Cornwall
Died15 October 1660(1660-10-15) (aged 38)
Charing Cross, London
Cause of deathExecuted
RelationsSir Alexander Carew, 2nd Baronet (half-brother, executed by Parliament 1644)
Alma materGloucester Hall, Oxford
OccupationPolitician

John Carew (3 July 1622 - 15 October 1660) was a member of the landed gentry from Antony, Cornwall and MP for Tregony from 1647 to 1653. A prominent supporter of the Fifth Monarchists, a millenarianist religious sect, he backed Parliament and the Commonwealth in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms and approved the Execution of Charles I in January 1649. He held various administrative positions during the Interregnum, including membership of the English Council of State, but was deprived of office and jailed in 1655 for his opposition to The Protectorate.

Although aware that as a regicide of Charles I he was likely to be arrested after the 1660 Stuart Restoration, Carew made no attempt to escape. During the trial, he claimed that by signing Charles' death warrant, he was simply complying with a legal Act of Parliament, an argument rejected by the court.

He was found guilty of treason and hanged, drawn and quartered on 15 October 1660, two days after his close friend Thomas Harrison suffered the same fate.