My wife's ancestors - Gerard - Contents

Sir Gilbert Gerard

• Sources yet to be consulted:
  • Sir Gilbert Gerard in [DNB]
  • Sir Gilbert Gerard (and here) in The History of Parliament.

Sir Gilbert Gerard,
born pre-1523, probably c.1521.
See wikipedia.
He was educ University of Cambridge but did not graduate.
He entered Gray's Inn 1537. Called to the bar 1539.
He mar Ann Ratcliffe [or Anne, or Radcliffe, dau of Thomas Ratcliffe and Isabel Boteler, of Winmarleigh, Lancashire].
Ann stayed Catholic.

Attorney General 1559 to 1581.
Elizabeth appointed him Attorney General on 22 January 1559, a week after her coronation on 15 January 1559. It was said this was to reward him for defending her during reign of Mary, but evidence for this is weak.
In 1564 he purchased (from a Gerard relative) the manor of Bromley, near Ashley, Staffordshire.
Around 1575 he built Gerrard's Bromley Hall at Bromley.
Knighted 1579.
Master of the Rolls 1581 to 1593.
He was accused of protecting Catholics. An anonymous letter of 1586 denounced him as "a protestant at London and a papist in Lancashire".

He died 4 February 1593 (new style year), probably at Gerrard's Bromley.
He was bur 6 March 1593 at Ashley, Staffordshire.
Ann died 1608, bur Ashley.
Their impressive tomb in Ashley church was completed about 1612 by their son the 1st Baron.
Sir Gilbert and Ann had issue:

1. Thomas Gerard, 1st Baron Gerard,
   born c.1564, eldest son.
   See wikipedia.
   Created Baron 1603.
   He died 1618.
   Ancestor of Barons Gerard.
   See plaque in Ashley church, Staffordshire, listing the 1st to 6th Barons Gerard, buried there.

   
   

2. Ratcliffe Gerard,
   younger son.

Gerrard's Bromley Hall in a print of 1686.
See full size.

Tomb of Sir Gilbert Gerard and Ann Ratcliffe.
Ashley, Staffordshire.
Photo 2018. See full size.

Thomas Gerard, 1st Baron Gerard, in [Complete Peerage].