Lord mayor of London, second son of Sir John Garrard, bart., and Jane, daughter of Sir Moulton Lambard, and maternal grandson of Dr: Cosin, bishop of Durham; was descended from an old Kentish family originally named Attegare, whose representatives were connected with the city of London for more than two centuries. Two of his ancestors were lord mayors, Sir William Garrard in 1555, and the first baronet, Sir John Garrard; in 1601; and intermarriages took place between the Garrards and the city families of Roe, Gresham, and Barkham. Garrard, who was born in 1650; was a grandson of the first. baronet, and carried on business as a merchant, first in Watling Street and afterwards in Warwick Court, Newgate Street. By the death, on 13 January 1700, of his brother Sir John Garrard, the third baronet, he became possessed of the title and of the family estate of Lamer. In, Wheathamstead, Hertfordshire, but continued to reside and carry on business in London.
He was elected alderman of the ward of Aldersgate on 3 March 1701, and removed to Bridge Ward Without in 1722, becoming senior alderman. In 1701, after a contested election, he was appointed sheriff of London and Middlesex. Garrard was elected M.P. for' Agmundesham (Amersham), Buckinghamshire in 1702, 1707, and 1708. He served the office of lord mayor in 1709-10. There was no pageant at his inauguration, the practice having been finally dropped after the mayoralty of his predecessor, Sir Charles Duncombe, for whom a pageant was prepared, but not exhibited on account of the death of Prince George of Denmark. At the beginning of his mayoralty, on 6 Nov. 1709; Dr. , Sacheverell [q. v.] preached before him at St. Paul's his ce ebrated sermon advocating the doctrines of non-resistance and passive obedience, for which, and for an earlier sermon preached at Derby in August, he was impeached before the House of Lords. Garrard, who was a Tory, is said to have approved of the sermon and to have sanctioned its publication, but this he repudiated in the House of Commons when Sacheverell pleaded the encouragement of the lord mayor in mitigation of his offence. During the serious riots which followed this trial Garrard exerted himself with much energy to restore order, and issued a proclamation, dated 30 March, prohibiting assemblies in the streets, the lighting of bonfires, and the sale of seditious books and pamphlets.
In a political tract published in 1691, entitled "A new-years-gift for the Tories" (Guildhall Library, Tracts, cciii. 6), Garrard is described as one of 'a squadron of Rapperrees,' whose names are combined in the acrostic 'The Brittish Rapperrees, Roger Lestrange his gang.' In October 1710 he was chosen colonel of one of the regiments of the trained bands (Luttrell, v. 640), and in the same year he became master of the Grocers' Company, of which he was a liveryman. He was also elected, in October 1720, president, of Bridewell and Bethlehem Hospitals, and his portrait in full length, by an unknown artist, is preserved in the hall of Bridewell (Malcolm, Londinium Redivivum, ii. 671). Garrard was also deputy-lieutenant of Hertfordshire. He died on 10 March 1724, and was buried in Wheathamstead Church, where a monument remains to his memory. His will dated 20 Dec. 1723, was proved in the P.C.C. on 1 April 1726 (Romney, 86). His property included estates in Exhall and Bedworth, Warwichkshire in Wheathamstead, Hertfordshire; and in the city of London; besides stock and annuities in the South Sea Company. Garrard was twice married: first, on 16 October 1675, to Elizabeth Poyner of Codicote Bury, Hertfordshire; and secondly, on 22 January 1688-9, to Jane, daughter of Thomas Bennett of Salthrop Wiltshire. By the latter marriage he had five daughters and three surviving sons, Samuel (d. 1761), who succeeded to the baronetcy; Thomas (d. 1758), who became common serjeant of the city of London; and Bennet (d. 1767), who was M.P. for Amersham and sixth and last baronet. By his descent from Alderman Sir Edward Barkham, Garrard was distantly related to Sir Robert Walpole. Granger describes a mezzotint portrait of Garrard as lord mayor, by Simon,in the same plate with Lord Mayors Mertins, Brocas, and Parsons.
[Clutterbuck's Hist. of Hertfordshire, is 614, 616; 622; Burke's Extinct Baronetage; Granger's Biog. Hist. of England, Noble's continuation, ii. 221-2; Orridge's Citizens of London and their Rulers, p. 202-242;Chester's Marriage. Licences, ed. Foster, col. 629 ; Trans. of .the London and Middlesex Archaeol. Soc. vol. iii., Visitation of London, p. 28; Cal. of Treasury Papers, 1708-14, p. 140.]
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