Carew (le Carreu, Carrue), John (d. 1362), knight, deputy justiciar, and escheator of Ireland, was son of John Carew and his second wife, Joan, daughter of Gilbert Talbot. His father died in 1323; John succeeded Nicholas, his older half-brother, and probably came of age when he was called to Ireland to defend his estates in Co. Carlow in 1332. He reappears in the records as a household knight of Edward III in 1338, and in June 1340 and March 1341 he was paid substantial sums of money for taking part in the unsuccessful campaigns in France with the king (1339, 1340). There he may have been associated with the contingent of Ralph de Ufford (qv), the younger brother of the earl of Suffolk. He almost certainly followed de Ufford to Ireland in July 1344 as part of his retinue when the latter was appointed justiciar. In 1345 he was appointed keeper of the peace in Co. Carlow. After de Ufford's death (April 1346) he seems to have remained in Ireland with the new justiciar, Walter Bermingham (qv), with whom he had served under de Ufford. On 28 August 1349 he was appointed escheator of Ireland (a position that he held till 1358), and at the same time may have been appointed sheriff of Cork, where his family once held extensive lands. By now an experienced administrator in Ireland, he was appointed deputy justiciar by the king's Irish council on 3 October 1349 when de Bermingham resigned. He remained in that office till 19 December and was succeeded by Thomas de Rokeby (qv).
Over the next decade he frequently travelled between England and Ireland, serving as a conduit for information between Dublin and Westminster. Some of his time in England was spent on administrative tasks assigned by the king, and the remainder tending to his scattered estates. As escheator of Ireland, in addition to his usual duties, he was appointed keeper of the liberty of Trim in March 1360 after the death of Roger Mortimer (qv). In March 1361 he was once more summoned to Westminster to advise the king on the proposed expedition to Ireland of Lionel (qv), duke of Clarence, and he was one of the prominent counsellors mentioned in the indenture between the king and duke in July. He accompanied Lionel to Dublin in September 1361 as one of the commanders of his large retinue. He died on Whit Monday 1362, and his estates were granted in wardship to Queen Philippa.
He married first a cousin, Margaret, daughter of John Mohun of Dunster; they had two sons, Leonard and William. His second wife, Elizabeth, received permission to remarry freely in November 1363.