GERARD, John III

John Gerard shared his name with a number of others living in Dorset and Somerset in the first half of the fifteenth century. One of the most notable among them was John Gerard of ‘Dyberworth’ in Dorset, who held a moiety of the manor of Sandford Orcas, on the border of that county with Somerset.2 Som. Feet of Fines (Som. Rec. Soc. xxii), 48. Yet this cannot have been the future MP, for he died in 1427.3 C139/33/31. His son and heir, another John, then aged just five, was to have an oratory at Sandford Orcas by licence of Bp. Bekynton in 1462 (Reg. Bekynton, i (Som. Rec. Soc. xlix), 1436), and died in 1465, leaving a young son, Robert: CFR, xx. 145; C1/43/229-30; CP40/834, rot. 362. In all probability the man who represented Wareham and Dorchester lived in east Dorset and was closely related to William Gerard, who was returned by Wareham to as many as eight Parliaments between 1414 and 1423. Like William, John formed an association with the prominent gentry family of Newburgh, seated on the coast at East Lulworth, so it is entirely possible that it was he (rather than his namesake of Sandford Orcas) who acted as under sheriff to John Newburgh I* during the latter’s term of office in the joint bailiwick in 1420-2, and while so engaged attested the two parliamentary elections which Newburgh conducted at Ilchester in 1421.4 C219/12/5, 6. In 1423 his putative brother William stood surety at the Exchequer for a lessee of crown property in east Purbeck, and John himself did likewise for John Myldestrete when in June 1434 Myldestrete was given custody of the same estate. On that occasion he was designated ‘of Purbeck, gentleman’. His fellow mainpernor was a man from Wareham, a fact which, coupled with his kinsman’s domination of the representation of that borough, is an indication that even though John is not known to have owned property in the town he was at least acquainted with the burgesses.5 CFR, xvi. 204. They elected him to Parliament 14 months later, in August 1435. William Gerard was present at the hustings at Dorchester to attest the indenture for the county, as too were their associates John Newburgh I and his son the rising lawyer, John II*. Seven years later, when John Gerard was returned for Dorchester to the Parliament of 1442, he was accompanied to the Commons by the latter, as one of the shire knights.6 C219/14/5, 15/2. On 2 Apr., very soon after their return home following the dissolution, Gerard leased to Newburgh his manor of Baltington at West Tyneham, near the lawyer’s home. More than 45 years later the negotiated terms of this lease were contested between their respective sons (debating whether it had been made for 30 years in return for an annual rent of six marks (£4), or for 80 years at £2 p.a.).7 C1/95/7-9.

There is no other evidence to enable us to assess the income Gerard received from his property on the Isle of Purbeck or elsewhere, and he is otherwise only known to have possessed land at West Burton, half-way between Dorchester and Wareham. In 1449 he sued two husbandmen for stealing his crops there.8 CP40/753, rot. 15d. Whether he ever acquired property in the county town itself does not transpire, although he was occasionally called upon to serve there as a juror at inquisitions post mortem (doing so, for instance, in November 1444 following the death of John Newburgh I, and in October 1456 after that of Alice, wife of Robert Frampton).9 C139/116/44, 162/19; CPR, 1452-61, p. 333. Meanwhile, in June 1455 he had been summoned to be a juror at assizes to be held at Dorchester the following Michaelmas, to provide evidence in a case of alleged smuggling by John Mone*, the wealthy landowner from north Dorset who had also sat in the Parliament of 1442.10 E143/24/7.

Gerard’s loyalties in the civil war years of 1459-61 may have been divided between the duke of Somerset, who occupied the lordship and castle of Corfe, near his home, and Somerset’s enemy, the duke of York, who was Wareham’s feudal lord. Yet he may have been thought to favour the Lancastrians. Two John Gerards took out pardons a year after Edward IV’s accession, on 6 Feb. and 15 Mar. 1462, the one being described as a gentleman ‘of Wareham’ and the other ‘of Purbeck’.11 C67/45, mm. 32, 34. Perhaps the former was William Gerard’s son of that name. John Gerard ‘esquire’, possibly the latter, and our MP, was listed as a potential juror at sessions of oyer and terminer to be held at Dorchester on the following 31 May, although when the sessions opened he was not pricked.12 KB9/21/18. This may be because he was the John Gerard, called ‘of Corfe Castle, gentleman’, who just a few days earlier had been indicted before the same justices of oyer and terminer sitting at Salisbury. The sheriff of Wiltshire was instructed to bring him before them to answer the charge of rebellion against the King, but returned that he could not be found in the county. The indictment held that on 2 Apr. he had aggregated to himself a number of malefactors at Salisbury, where they plotted King Edward’s death, before Gerard had set off for Scotland to assist the exiled Lancastrians in carrying out the plan.13 KB9/135/12, 25, 37.

If this was indeed the MP, what happened to him thereafter is obscure. His son and heir was also called John, and it may have been the latter who as ‘of Steeple, Dorset, alias of Purbeck, gentleman’, was pardoned by Edward IV on 16 Dec. 1471, and as ‘of Purbeck’ appointed by his successor to commissions of array in May and December 1484. In a suit he brought in Chancery in 1488 John challenged the claims of the Newburghs to continue to hold the manor of Baltington. He asserted that his father had leased the manor John Newburgh II for 30 years, but that Newburgh had not only continued to occupy it long after the lease expired (and after the death of John Gerard the father), but had granted his interest to one of his younger sons, John Newburgh†. The latter, besides wrongfully occupying Baltington and taking the profits, also refused to relinquish the evidences, and contended that the original lease had been for a term of 80 years, and that after this interest had been passed on to him, he had duly paid the stipulated rent of £2 p.a. to Gerard, who had accepted it. Gerard responded that he only took the money as the Newburghs were of ‘such myght and power’ that he felt unable to challenge them.14 C1/95/7-9. The immediate outcome of the suit is not recorded, although Baltington later returned to the Gerards’ possession.15 J. Hutchins, Dorset, i. 619. Another John Gerard ‘of Osmington’, who also took out a pardon in December 1471 (C67/48, m. 28), joined John Gerard ‘of Hyde’ as a witness at Bere Regis in 1476 to deeds regarding the Turberville estates, probably in the interest of John Newburgh II, and as a juror at an assize in 1483-4: CCR, 1476-85, no. 140; PROME, xv. 200. Which of these namesakes served as approver of the fisheries and tolls at Wareham in 1475-6 (accounting to the receiver of the dowager duchess of York), reeve of Wareham in 1477-8 and bailiff of other of the duchess’s properties in Dorset in 1482-5, remains uncertain: SC6/1114/5-8.