Nicholas Carew (Lord Privy Seal)

Nicholas Carew (died 1390), of Beddington in Surrey, was an English lawyer, landowner, courtier, administrator and politician who served as Keeper of the Privy Seal during the reign of King Edward III.

By 1356 Carew had married the widow, gaining control of her lands in Surrey and Berkshire, and made her manor of Beddington, which her father had bought in 1345, the family home.

[5] In 1371 he was appointed Keeper of the Privy Seal, the first layman to hold the post, and remained in office until the king's death in 1377.

[7] He was one of the group of courtiers around Edward III, including William, Lord Latimer, Lord John Neville, Sir Alan Buxhull, Richard Lyons, and the king's mistress Alice Perrers, who increasingly controlled access to and decisions emerging from the king as his health failed.

[5] Alice Perrers asked him to help refute the allegations against her but when she went on trial in December the court heard his view that it was she who induced the senile king to pardon Richard Lyons from his conviction for financial malpractice.