For some time he received a small pension from Queen Henrietta Maria, and subsequently he was provided for by Pope Urban VIII: an abbey and a priory in commendam, with other benefices.
After an aimless period, and giving up his Catholic faith, he trained for the law, being admitted to Lincoln's Inn in 1652.
Scott was not aware of Cary's background when he edited the poems; he made the identification subsequently, as appears from a note in Woodstock.
In the Brotherton Collection, University of Leeds, is an autograph manuscript of "Ballades dedicated to the Lady Victoria Uvedale" (1652/53).
The manuscript contains illustrations by the poet and an inscription "Ballades composed, and transcribed by Iohn-Patricke Carey, when Hee had little else to doe".
[5] George Saintsbury included Cary's poems in his monumental Minor Poets of the Caroline Period (1906).