[Sources unknown and unstated. Other sources, Virginia Magazine of History and Biography for corroboration, and HGC independent research]
This begins, as so many do, very near to the beginning, with Cynedda Welegid (Cunedda the Great), a Roman officer, but by birth half Welsh, became King of the Welsh about AD 400. Enough of stuff and nonsense. Fast forward to the middle. There is some confusion as to the connection between Thomas Gerrard died 1523/6 and his great-greatgrandson Thomas Gerrard of Westmoreland County, Virginia who died 1673. The line is either Thos-Thos-Thos-Thos-Thos, that is, Thomas Times Five, or Thos-Wm-Thos-John-Thos, that is, Thomas Three Plus, in my terminology. To be continued at a later date. Fact is, it is not altogether certain that Robert Ellyson married a Gerrard, Elizabeth or Hannah or otherwise. Quaker and St. Mary's County MD records cite his wife as Elizabeth "last name unknown" and "Mrs. Eliz Ellison". Thomas Gerrard's will cites five daughters and several sons in law and various grandsons, but no Ellyson. Therefore, not only is the line of descent uncertain, but it may be moot, and doesn't matter regardless.
Sir Thomas Gerard of Bryn, son and heir of Sir Peter Gerard and grandson of William Gerard of Kingsley near Frodsham in Cheshire and of Bryn in the Manor of Ashton in Makerfield, was a minor in 1380 when his father died. He was fined for marrying in his minority in 1383 when he should have been the King's ward. His wife Matilda was named in the fine. He received a royal pardon and was knighted for his efforts in the Scotch wars in 1393 and became the knight of the shire of Lancashire.
Sir Thomas remained in relative obscurity from the official point of view until appointed sheriff in November 1399 when the deposition of Richard 11 and the accession to the throne of Henry of Bolingbroke brought him to the forefront in the period of political unrest which marked the Lancasterian reign.
He was commissioned 28 January 1401 in Lancashire to enquire into the seizure of goods from the house of Friars Minor of Lanvas, in Wales, and to restore them on the supplication of the ministers and friars of the Order of England. Died 27 March 1416.
At his death, Thomas was in possession of a moity (one half) of the Manor of Kirkby and the Manor of Melling held of the King as Duke of Lancaster; the Manor of Ashton held by Henry de Langton, Baron of Newton; the Manors of Brindle and Anderton; with the advowson of the Church of Brindle; the Manor of Skelmersdale held of Matilda Lovel, Lady Holland; a moity of the Manor of Rainhill held of the heir of Henry de Eccleston; two messuages (houses) and 40 acres of land in Eccleston; messuages and land in Sutton, Goldburne, and Newton, Grimsargh, Rainford. (See map.)
On the 22 April, it was estimated his lands produced some 150 pounds income per year. With the exception of the Cheshire Manor of Kingsley, most of his lands were exclusively in the West Derby Hundred in Lancaster Co. The territorial link with the Botiliers (Butler) of Warrington was strengthened in 1402 by the marriage of his son Sir John with Alice, daughter of Sir John Boteler (also Botiller).
John Gerard, of Kingsley, born ca. 1386, thirty or more at his father's death, married in 1402 to Alice Boteler (Butler) who died in 1441, daughter of Sir John Boteler (Butler) died 1400, Baron of Warrington and Alice Plumpton, daughter of Sir William de Plumpton died 1362, whose mother was Lucy (Lucia) Roos, a descendant of Robert de Roos, the son of Robert de Roos, the Surety, the 4th Baron of Hamlake Manor born 1177, died 1227, married Isabel, daughter of William the Lion, King of Scotland. John Gerard died in 1431.
Their daughter Constance married 1421-2 to Alexander Standish, eldest son of Laurence Standish and Lora Pilkington, daughter of Sir Roger Pilkington, Their son Ralph Standish, born 1424, married Margaret Radcliffe died 1476, daughter of Richard Radcliffe of Chadderton.
Sir John was a fellow knight of the shire with Sir Thomas Radcliffe, a justice of the peace and commissioner of array for West Derbyshire in 1418. In the next two parliaments three of the knights in the shire were relatives of the sheriff Sir Richard Radcliffe. The influence of the sheriffs on elections is quite evident. In 1420-1425, Sir Richard Radcliffe's son returned twice and two of his relatives once each. His successor, Sir Robert Lawrence occupied the office from 1425-1437 during which time his two sons each returned once.
A new force came to the fore in 1426 with several marriages between the Butler, Harrington and Stanley families. In each of the next two parliaments, one of the Lancashire knights was a novice, the sheriff's son returned with Sit John Byron to parliament in 1429 and William Gernet, son-in-law of Sir Thomas Gerard, and John Morley who returned for the second time in 1431. Elizabeth Gerard first married Gilbert Langton, and William Gernet was her second husband.
From 1432 to 1460, only two of the eleven persons representing the county palatine in the fourteen parliaments of that period for which returns are known were unconnected either by marriage or interest to what was called the Harrington-Stanley alliance.
Thomas Gerard, killed in the Scottish Wars 16 November 1526, was married to Dame Margery Trafford, daughter of Sir Edmund Trafford, and widow of Nicholas Longford of Longford Co. of Derby and Sir John Port of Etwall, Co. of Derby.
Sir Thomas Gerard, born in 1488, succeeded his grandfather and was killed in the wars of Berwick. He left nine children, five sons and four daughters. Only Thomas and Pyers (Peter) were specifically named as sons when friends of Thomas who were with him in the wars testified regarding his dying wishes for his four younger sons in order to protect their inheritance against the greediness of their elder brother Thomas who was attempting to deny his a portion of the estate. Miles Gerard is mentioned at the estate inquisition but was not identified as a son although later evidence indicates that Thomas had a son Miles. This Miles may have been his brother since most of his children were minors at his death.
Involved in a dispute over a cock fight in 1515-16, and named as Sir Thomas Gerrard's adherents and possibly brothers, were Robert Gerrard, gentleman, and Edmund Gerrard. James Gerrard is also mentioned as Sir Thomas' uncle.
Elizabeth is named as one of his daughters. She married Sir Richard Bold. A daughter Anne was married to Lord Thomas de Hoghton, Baronet, son of Sir Rkhard Hoghton and his wife, a daughter of Sir Thomas Assheton. Thomas Hoghton died in 1580 at the age of 63.
Although all the names of Thomas' sons are not known, some of his grandsons may be among those listed as freeholders in Lancashire in 1600: Thomas Gerrard de Garswood, Milo (Miles) Gerrard de Aughton, gentleman, Thomas Gerrard de Sutton, Radus (Ralph) Gerrard de Newhall, gentleman, John Ince de Ince, and Miles Gerrard de Ince. Miles of Ince was the son and heir of William Gerard of Ince and Jane Osbaldeston, daughter of Alexander Dsbaldeston. An inventory of Ralph Gerrard's estate was filed in York Co. Virginia in 1637, leading to speculation that Dr. Thomas Gerard of Maryland and Virginia was his son.
Margery Hulton in her will of 1597 names a daughter Elizabeth Strangeways. sons. George, William, Thomas, Alexander, and Thomas GerWard of Garswood. She may have been Thomas' widow, but considering the dates, it is more likely she was a daughter-in-law who had remarried after the death of her husband.
Sir Thomas Gerard of Kingsley and Bryn, born about 1512, he married Jane Legh, daughter of Sir Peter Legh (Lee) of Haydock, Co. of Lancaster, whom he divorced in 1550. He died 21 March 1592/3. According to the parish records, his second wife's name was Margaret who died in 1588.
Sir Thomas Gerard, died 1601, married Elizabeth Port, daughter of Sir John Port, Knight of Etwall, Derbyshire. He was M.P. of the Co. of Lancaster 1562-7 and High Sheriff in 1558. His children were Sir Thomas, b.1560: Alexander, b. 1561; John, the Jesuit priest (b. 4 October 1564, died in Rome at the English College 17 July 1637); and Nicholas who had a daughter Margery who married Robert Arrowsmith of Haydock. Their son Bryan took the name Edmund Arrowsmith and became a priest. He was martyred at the age of 43 on the 28 August 1628. In a strange ritual under cover of night, Sir Thomas and other family members accompanied the family priest who was armed with a knife and slipped in where the body was secreted and severed his right hand which is held in great veneration with other memoirs of Arrowsmith at ..... [one or two lines lost in original scan, unrecoverable] ...
Sir Thomas also had a daughter who married Sir George Peckham, Sir George with his father-in-law Sir Thomas supported Sir Humphrey Gilbert in his quest for a Catholic refuge in the New World and petitioned Walsingham to approach the Queen with a proposal to allow recusants to leave England. Thomas's sons and grandsons were educated at Oxford, Cambridge. Douai, Rheims, and the Jesuit College in Paris as were other Gerard sons thus incurring the wrath of the Queen for their exposure to the "Popish" religion.
In his autobiography, Father lohn Gerard sav, the family originally came from Kingsley and Cheshire and between 1330-40 entered into the possession of Bryn, his ancestral home about 5 miles south of Wigan, when loan heiress of Thomas de Burnull married William Gerard of Kingsley.
Baines History of Lancashire gives a description of Bryn Hall as it stood in ruins about 1800. It was probably not here but at Etwall, Derbyshire, the house of his mother Elizabeth Port that John Gerard was born. His father Sir Thomas Gerard had been knighted in 1553 and was sheriff of Lancashire in 1558. Like his son he appears to have been an adventurous and romantic character,
A plot to rescue Mary, Queen of Scots when she was imprisoned at Tutbury, Staffordshire, a few miles from Etwall, and to take her to the Isle of Man is the subject of many manuscripts.
The beginnings of the plot to place a Scottish monarch on the throne of England can be traces to the year 1569 when John Gerard was five years old, though it was not until 1571 that his father was imprisoned in the tower. Many English people desired a Scottish King because the Scotch people were regarded as a highly intelligent and hardy race and it was felt England would prosper under a Scottish ruler. On his release in 1573, Sir Thomas took his children back to Bryn. The price he paid for his freedom was the enforced sale of his Manor at Bromley to his cousin, Sir Gilbert Gerard, the Attorney General.
From August 1586 to October 1588, Sir Thomas was again imprisoned for supposed complicity in the Babbington plot to kill Queen Elizabeth and place Mary on the throne, On his release, he seems to have given up the practice of his faith, though he returned to it before his death in 1601. The family thereafter remained staunchly Catholic and loyal to the Stuart cause.
At York, James 1, son of Mary, Queen of Scots; on his way to London in 1603 expressed his gratitude to John Gerard's brother, Thomas for the family's loyalty to his mother. "1 am particularly bound," he said, "to love your blood on account of the persecution you have borne for me." John Gerard's comment upon hearing of his brother's knighthood said, "It was really no great advancement for him as the family has been thus for sixteen centuries."
Sir Thomas' daughter Katharine b. 1553 married James Bradshaw born 1550/1.
In 1580, proceedings against the "Papist recusants" were increased with rigor. On the 16th of December, the Council wrote "the Queen finds great inconvenience growing by the education of great numbers of young gentlemen and other subjects beyond the sea, where they are accustomed and nourished in papistry with instructions making them mislike the government and on reaching home refusing to yield obedience to the laws and matters of religion. and by their evil religion corrupt others, the contagion spreading so far, as, if not remedied, to be dangerous to the Queen and state."
She, therefore, "intending to take orders that children shall be prohibited from departing out of the realm except by special license; as also by recalling those now in Spain, Italy, France, etc." Among those named abroad without license were sons of the Ashtons, Gerards, Houghtons, Trafford, Bold, Anderton, etc.
Another member of Father John Gerard's family whose precise parentage is not known was Richard Gerard, martyr, bom in 1636 in Hilderstone, Staffordshire, England, who was falsely charged in the Titus Oakes Plot and ed in Newgate for 10 months without trial. He died in prison on 11 March 1680. His son, Phillip, died in 1733, was at St. Omer's with two of his rs at the time of the plot and tuition fees sent abroad to the school may been interpreted as "proof" that Gerard was helping to finance a Jesuit inspired invasion from abroad.
Sir Thomas Gerard of Bryn, born 1560 and buried 16 February 1620-1, was knighted in 18 April 1603, created a baronet 22 May 1611 by James I, free of charge, in recognition of his father's services to Mary Stuart and had only one son, Thomas. He was married three times. First to Cecily Maney, mother of his children and daughter of Sir Walter Maney; secondly, Mary Hawes, daughter of Sir Thomas Hawes, and widow of John Smythe; and thirdly to Mary Browne, daughter of William Browne, widow of William Downer, Esq. Sir 'Thomas and another brother Alexander b. 1561 matriculated from Brasenose College to Oxford on the same date, 20 July 1578. Sir Thomas received his M.A. at Cambridge in 1612 (on the King's visit) as "Jarrard."
In his will, Sir Thomas mentions his only son Thomas; also Thomas of Rainhill and his younger brother John; Thomas of Newhall; and his Grandsons Thomas and John; Peter Legh (Lee) son of Peter Legh and Margaret Gerrard; Richard Molyneux (Mullins); and Miles Gerrard, His daughter. Frances, married Ralph Standish after her father's death. Thomas of Newhall moved his family to Maryland in 1650.
Some uncertainty remains on whose son Thomas of Newhall was, however, Ralph Gerrard of Newhall was present at an inquisition into the death of a friend which also named Miles Gerrard of Ince, as present and there was an inventory filed in York Co., Virginia for a Ralph Gerrard in 1637. When William Jennings died in 1687, he mentions a son John, a daughter Ann Lathum; and son-in-law Ralph Gerrard and a granddaughter Mary Gerrard.
Parish records of St. Nicholas in Liverpool also show a James and Obedience (granddaughter of Peter Harrison) Gerard of Newhall, near Wigan. Obedience was buried 6 October 1683 and a daughter Elizabeth was buried 14 April 1683. Not knowing Thomas' exact birthdate prevents positive identification among numerous births of sons named Thomas. In the Parish of Wigan alone, Thomas, son of Thomas was christened 24 May 1590; Thomas, son of Thomas was christened 25 April 1614; Thomas, son of Thomas of Ince was christened 25 June 1617. Not all of the Parish records have been preserved so there could be many more. Accounts in the U.S. have attributed Dr. Thomas Gerard's birth at various dates ranging from 1608 to 1614. Historians have been unable to pinpoint the location of Newhall, other than it was near Wigan.
That Thomas could well afford to provide for his nephews is certain. At his death his only son and heir received the following property: "capital messuage (house) called 1e Bryn'; also Manor of Ashton in Makerfield and 130 messuages, 60 cottages, 2 windmills, 4 watermills, 1300 acres of land; 300 acres of meadow; 3000 acres of pasture; 100 acres of wood and underwood; 20 acres of land covered by water; 40 acres of moor and moss; 300 acres of marsh and 40 shillings rent in Bryn and Ashton in Makerfield; also Manor of Windle and 70 messuages, 40 cottages, 70 acres of land; 100 acres of meadow; 1000 acres of pasture; 20 acres of wood and underwood; 300 acres of moor, moss, and marsh; and 10 shillings of rent in Windle; also 30 acres of land, meadow, and pasture in Ince, 5 messuages; 5 gardens; 5 orchards; and 5 acres of land,"
Sir Thomas Gerard, 2nd baronet, born 1586, was 36 years old when his father died. He married Frances Molyneux, daughter of Sir Richard Molyneux (Mullins), Lord of Sefton and had six sons and a daughter Frances who took the veil at Gravesends in Flanders. In 1629 he joined a pilgrimage to the Catholic shrine, St. Winifred's Well at Holywell, Flintshire which is still a holy place 200 years later. He died 15 March 1630.
William, Richard, Gilbert, Peter, Thomas and John were named as his sons in the estate settlement signed by William Gerard, the eldest son. It also named his second wife Dorothy (More) Peter, widow of John Peter, a descendant of Lord Peter and that she had no issue. (The St. Omer school records list her as their mother.) The four younger sons all died unmarried.
His second son Richard was born in 1612 and became a distinquished soldier who went to America in 1634 with the Calverts, returned to England two years later and purchased the Manor of Ince from his cousin Thomas Gerard. There he died in 1686.
His great grandson, William, who had inherited the property from his cousin, Richard, also had no surviving male heirs and the manor of Ince passed to his sister Mary Gerard who married John Walmisley, a descendant of Richard Walmisley who was married to Ellen, daughter of William Gerard of Radbourne when he was only eleven years old and she was eight to secure the Gerard and Walmisley estates. This was the end of the Gerard name at Richard's manor at Ince. Later records show the property continued in the Walmisley name.
His third son Gilbert attended St. Omer's 1629-34 and became a Catholic priest. He died in 1645. Ships passenger lists show that Gilbert Gerard, no age given, went to Virginia in 1643 and Peter Gerard, no age given, went to America in 1653. Both of these men may have been Richard's two younger brothers as the school records distinctly show that his brother Gilbert went to America, but the possibility exists that Peter also could have been one of his many cousins of the same name in the Ince lineage.
Thomas of Newhall received 200 pounds sterling from a relative to move his family to America. Since he was mentioned in Richard's grandfathers will, it indicates that Sir Thomas was the relative financing his ventures. However, Sir Thomas Moulson, of London, who died without heirs, also endowed his wife's nieces and nephews with the same names as those of this generation in Bryn.
Those named in the will were grandsons of Gilbert (41C) and sons of Francis Gerard of Harrow Hill, in Middlesex. Another of Sir Gilbert's grandsons, Charles, son or grandson of Radcliff, who married Elizabeth Stoner, daughter of Sir Charles Stoner was listed as a passenger transported to America in 1666 by Thomas Riddings who received 1000 acres in Accomack Co. Virginia for transporting 20 persons. Evidence all though history show these two elderly gentlemen, Sir Thomas Gerard and Sir Thomas Moulson, financing the ventures of their young relatives.
Sir William, son of Thomas, born 1611, of Garswood and Bryn, Baronet, 19 years old at his father's death, and 26 years old at the [??] inquisition held in 1637, expended a large estate in the reign of Charles I and lost considerable property by sequestration. (The State seized property as a means of enforcing a degree for the payment of money from these Catholic families.) Sir William was bured 7 April 1681.
He married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Cuthbert and Alice (Anderton) Clifton, Knight of Lytham and Westby. He had four sons, all of whom attended an English Jesuit School, St. Omer's College, at Saint Omer in Spanish Flanders, founded in 1593. (Flanders is now Vlaanderen, Belgium.)
The school was forced to move to Bruges, Austria in the Netherlands in 1762 because of attacks on the Jesuits in France. (St. Omer's was then on French Territory.) Boys with a view to entering the priesthood attened St. Omer's and a large proportion of them actually did become priests.
William's sons attended St. Omer's as follows: William, 1650-54; Cuthbert, 1656-62; John 1658-52 or later; and Thomas, who became a priest, 1660-62 and died in 1682.
Two other Thomas Gerards also became priests, the son of Richard and Isabella (Baldwin) of Wigan; and the son of Thomas and Mary (Wright) of Highfield, grandson of Charles and brother to Caryl and Phillip Gerrard. The latter Thomas visited America, but died in Derbyshire, England.
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