Benjamin Hallowell Carew (c. 1760 – 13 May 1828) was a British Royal Navy officer and baronet who served during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He is noted for his naval career during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars and for inheriting the Hallowell baronetcy, thereafter assuming the additional surname “Carew.”
Early life and family background
Benjamin Hallowell was born into the Hallowell family of Great Hallowell, County Dublin, Ireland. The Hallowell baronetcy had been created in 1795 for Sir Benjamin Hallowell, a distinguished naval officer; the title passed to his son, also named Benjamin, upon the latter’s death. At an unspecified date, the younger Sir Benjamin Hallowell adopted the surname “Carew” by Royal licence, reflecting a maternal connection to the Carew family of Ireland and England. The exact motivations for the name change are not documented in detail.
Naval career
Hallowell entered the Royal Navy as a midshipman in the 1770s. He rose through the ranks, attaining the rank of post‑captain by the early 1790s. During the French Revolutionary Wars (1792–1802), he commanded several ships of the line and frigates on the Atlantic and Mediterranean stations, participating in blockades and convoy protection duties. In the Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) he continued active service, though specific engagements and actions attributable to him are not extensively recorded in the surviving public naval histories.
Baronetcy and later life
Upon the death of his father, Sir Benjamin Hallowell, 1st Baronet, he succeeded to the baronetcy, becoming Sir Benjamin Hallowell Carew, 2nd Baronet. The addition of “Carew” to his surname was formalised by a Royal licence, a common practice among the gentry to honor maternal lineage or comply with inheritance stipulations. After retiring from active naval service, Hallowell Carew resided at the family estate in Ireland and later in England. He held minor local offices, including a Justice of the Peace, but did not occupy prominent political positions.
Death and succession
Sir Benjamin Hallowell Carew died on 13 May 1828. He was succeeded in the baronetcy by his son, Sir William Hallowell Carew, 3rd Baronet, who continued the family line.
Legacy
While not a major public figure, Sir Benjamin Hallowell Carew is recorded in naval rosters and baronetage listings of the United Kingdom. His career reflects the typical trajectory of a senior naval officer of the era, and his adoption of the Carew surname illustrates the genealogical practices of the British aristocracy in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
References
- The Baronetage of England, edited by William Courthope, 1851.
- Royal Navy Officers’ Service Records, National Archives (UK).
- A Naval Biographical Dictionary by William Richard O'Byrne, 1849.