Carey was the son of
John Carey, 3rd Baron Hunsdon.
Cambridge University awarded him an honorary
MA in 1607. He was knighted, as a
Knight of the Bath (KB), on 3 June 1610. He was elected MP for
Sussex in 1609 and
Hertfordshire in 1614. Carey succeeded as
4th Baron Hunsdon on 17 April 1617. On 6 July 1621 he was created
Viscount Rochford, a title previously held by his great-great-grandfather
Thomas Boleyn, and on 8 March 1628 was created
Earl of Dover. He acted as Speaker of the House of Lords in 1641, and was Colonel of the regiment of Oxford Scholars between 1644 and 1646. In 1638, he sued a London merchant Humphrey Fox for abuse, after Fox had allegedly insulted Dover's livery, worn by a London
waterman. He served as a volunteer in the King's Lifeguard of Horse at the
Battle of Edgehill and commanded a part-time garrison regiment known as the 'Regiment of Oxford Scholars' which was raised in April–May 1644 from 'scholars and strangers' at the
University. In 1653 he was indicted for counterfeiting coinage and was obliged to sell his Hunsdon estate to
William Willoughby, the future 6th Lord Willoughby of Parham ==Marriages and issue==