Constituency Dates
Liverpool [1597]
Lancashire [1614]
Wigan [1621] – 16 Feb. 1621
Family and Education
b. 1560, 1st s. of Sir Thomas Gerard of Bryn by Elizabeth, da. and coh. of Sir John Port of Etwall, Derbys. educ. Brasenose, Oxf. 1576; I. Temple 1579. m. (1) c.1580, Cecily, da. of Sir Walter Maney of Staplehurst, 1s.; (2) aft. c.1608, Mary, da. of Sir James Hawes, ld. mayor of London, wid. of Sir John Smyth and Sir Robert Lee, ld. mayor; (3) Mary, da. of Sir William Dormer, wid. of Anthony Brown and Sir Edmund Uvedale. suc. fa. 1601. Kntd. 1603; cr. Bt. 1611.1Burke, Peerage, 924; GEC Baronetage, i. 21-2; CSP Dom. 1603-10, p. 326.
Offices Held

Gent. pens. 1599.2E407, box 1/29.

Address
Main residences: Highley Carr; Bryn, Lancs.
biography text

Gerard’s father, mother and brother John were Catholics. Himself tutored by a Catholic, he married a recusant wife (his first), employed a ‘notorious recusant’ as schoolmaster to his child, and was reported to be ‘of evil affection in religion’ in 1590. His return to Parliament for Liverpool is somewhat surprising, implying as it must a degree of conformity. He resided near the borough and presumably family necessity overruled other considerations. He evidently found favour in the new reign. James I at York, on his way to London in 1603, told him: ‘I am particularly bound to love your blood on account of the persecution you have borne for me’, and gave him an interest in the tobacco pipe monopoly as well as a free baronetcy ‘in consideration of his father’s sufferings in the cause of Mary Queen of Scots’. He died 16 Feb. 1601.3J. A. Twemlow, Liverpool Town Bks. ii. 1077, 1213; Misc. (Cath. Rec. Soc.), iv. 206-7 et passim; Recusant Rolls 1592-3 (Cath. Rec. Soc.), 31, 175, 182; VCH Lancs. iv. 144; John Gerard, Autobiog. ed. Caraman, 263; Lancs. Eliz. Recusants (Chetham Soc. n.s. cx), 86, 103, 115; Lancs. Inquisitions (Lancs. and Cheshire Rec. Soc. xvii), 297-301; PCC 40 Dale; GEC Baronetage, i. 21-2; VCH Lancs. iv. 143-6; v. passim; Gerard, 213.

Author
W.J.J.
Volume
Commons 1558-1603
Notes
  • 1. Burke, Peerage, 924; GEC Baronetage, i. 21-2; CSP Dom. 1603-10, p. 326.
  • 2. E407, box 1/29.
  • 3. J. A. Twemlow, Liverpool Town Bks. ii. 1077, 1213; Misc. (Cath. Rec. Soc.), iv. 206-7 et passim; Recusant Rolls 1592-3 (Cath. Rec. Soc.), 31, 175, 182; VCH Lancs. iv. 144; John Gerard, Autobiog. ed. Caraman, 263; Lancs. Eliz. Recusants (Chetham Soc. n.s. cx), 86, 103, 115; Lancs. Inquisitions (Lancs. and Cheshire Rec. Soc. xvii), 297-301; PCC 40 Dale; GEC Baronetage, i. 21-2; VCH Lancs. iv. 143-6; v. passim; Gerard, 213.