Family of Thomas Gerard
1. THOMAS1
GERARD1 was born Abt. 1540, and died January 11, 1628/29 in
Winwick,, England. He married JANE UNKNOWN Bef. 1586. She was born Abt. 1542 in
Garswood,,England,
and died Aft. 1628.
Notes for THOMAS GERARD:
The following text was provided by Patricia
L. M. Stanley, 10505 N. Fores Ave., Kansas City, MO 64155, in January, 1994:
Gerrard- Ellyson
The surname Gerrard is also spelt Gerard and
Girard and was originally FitzGerald. The arms of the principal branch of the
family are : Argent, a salties, glues, and the crest: A lion, rampant ermins
crowned or, and the motto: En Dieu Est Mon Esperance. The linage of the family
of Bryn County,England
based on Burk's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage is as follows:
William FitzGerald of Carrun Castle, county
Pembroke, eldest son of Gerald FitzWalter, constable of Penbroke castle and
brother of Maurice FitzGerald, Lor of Maynooth. He went to Ireland
with Strongbow in 1171, but died in England
in 1173;
Leaving with other issue, Otho, ancestor of the
Carew family and: William FitzWilliam FitzGerald, his youngest son, who was
Justice in Eyre, for the county of Chester, and had: William, Lord of a Moiety
of Kingsley, county Chester, in right of his wife, Emma, second daughter and
co-heir of Richard de Kingsley, Chief Forester of Delamere. He died before
1259,leaving a son:
William Gerrard of Kingsley, died before 1316
having by his wife, Margaret, his son and heir:
William Garrard of Kingsley and Cantenhall living
in 1330, who married Matilda, daughter of Henry de Glasshowse of Kingsley and
died before 1352. They had:
William Gerrard of Kingsley, born about 1322, who
married Joan, the daughter of heir of Peter de Bryn and had:
Sir Peter Gerard of Kingsley and Byrn, who died
before 1380, having had:
Thomas of whom presently, and John the ancestor of
Gerard of Ince and Macclesfield. His eldest son was:
Sir Thomas Gerard of Kingsley and Bryn, Knight,
who died March 27th 1415-16, leaving issue:
John Gerard of Kingsley [d.April 10th 1431] who
married Alice, daughter of Sir John le Boteler, and had:
Sir Peter Gerard of Kingsley and Bryn, who married
Isabella Strangeways, and had:
Sir Thomas Gerard of Kingsley and Bryn, who
married Douce, eldest daughter of Sir Thomas Assheton of Ashton-under-Lyne,and
had:
Peter Gerard, who married [1481] Margaret,
daughter of Sir Thomas Stanley of Hooton, Cheshire.
He died June 19th 1485.
They had:
Sir Thomas Gerard, of Kingsley and Bryn, who
married Margaret, the daughter of Sir Edmund Trafford of Trafford, and widow of
Nicholas Longfored and Sir John Port, and had:
Sir Thomas Gerard, of Kingsley and Bryn, who
married Jane, the daughter of Sir Peter Legh of Haydock and had:
Sir Thomas Gerard of Kingsley and Bryn, who being
accused of a design to deliver Mary, Queen of Scots, out of her confinement,
was committed to the tower, and was forced to give his estate of Bromley to his
kinsman, Sir Gilbert Gerrard, Attorney General and mortgage many others before
he could obtain his liberty. He married Elizabeth, daughter and co-heiress of
Sir John Port, Knight of Etwall, co. Derby.
He died in September 1601. He was survived by his son:
Sir Thomas Gerard, born 1560, was created a
Baronet on the first day of the institution of the order, May 22, 1611, and
received back the fee which he had given for the dignity in consideration of
the sufferings of his father on behalf of Queen Mary. He married first, Cecily,
daughter of Sir Walter Maney, Knight, and had:
Sir Thomas Gerard, Second Baronet of Bryn, who
married Frances, daughter of Sir Richard Molyneux, First Baronet of Sefton, and
sister of 1st Viscount Molyneux, and had:
John, Peter and Gilbert, who are said to have died
unmarried [see William Playfair], Frances,who became a Nun. William, the 3rd
Baronet, who married Elizabeth,daughter of Sir Cuthbert Clifton, Knight, Thomas
(below), Richard [1612-1686], Anne,who married 1st Cox and 2nd Thomas Green,
who came on the Ark and Dove to Maryland in 1634 and was governor of the
province. He was married three times, first to Elizabeth, sister of Leonard
Calvert, 2nd to Anne, and 3rd to the widow, Winifred Seyborne.
Gen.I---Thomas Gerrard, The Immigrant [died 1673]
The last quarter of the 16th century witnessed the
beginning of a Catholic exile movement to America.
As early as 1574 Sir Humphrey Gilbert, half-brother of Sir Walter Raleigh,
conceived a plan of colonization which was to have the support of two Catholic
gentlemen, Sir George Peckham and Sir Thomas Gerard. A state paper hinted that
he was hand in glove with "the Papists" in looking for relief to a
new world. Sir Humphrey was not a Catholic, but he was glad of support from
this quarter. It was not until four years later that he was able to obtain a
grant to discover and colonize any land in North America
then unsettled. At the time of this venture there was in force a statue called
"An Act against Fugitives over the Sea", which was designed to
prevent the migration of Catholic recusants. Notwithstanding this opposition
the English Catholics, led by Peckham and Gerard, continued their efforts to
plant a Catholic colony under the Gilbert grant. In 1582 they renewed their
efforts with Sir Humphrey. At this time an informer submitted to Walsingham the
following report.: "There is a muttering among the Papists that Sir
Humphrey Gilbert goeth to see a new found land; Sir George Pickham and Sir
Thomas Gerrard goeth with him. I have heard it said among the Papists that they
hope it will prove the best journey for England
that was made in forty years". Walsingham still adhered, however, to his
policy of allowing Catholic recusants to accompany the expedition provided they
made provision for the payment of their fines. [J.Moss Ives The Ark
And The Dove]
On June 11th 1583, Sir Humphrey's fleet of five
ships and some two hundred men, including Catholic recusants, sailed from
Plymonth and reached Maine on August 20th. On their return trip at midnight on September 9th, during a
heavy storm, Sir Humphrey's ship with all on board went down.
In 1632 Charles I granted a charter to Cecil
Calvert, 2nd Lord Baltimore, making him the proprietor of the largest tract of
land granted to a single person up to that time. His father, George, the first
Baron Baltimore, had been the promoter of the charter. He had previously
received a land grant in Newfoundland,
but found the climate unsuitable. Before returning to England
he had sailed up the Chesapeake Bay and
found Maryland more
to his liking and petitioned the King for the grant. He died, however, shortly
before the charter was issued and his son, Cecil, succeeded him to both his
title and the land. [Ives]
After much preparation the Ark
and the Dove spread their sails in the early morning of November 22nd, 1633.
The departure was from Cowes
on the Isle of Wight. The number of
voyagers and the proportion of Catholics and Protestants have been questioned.
On September 8th 1635,
A Relation of Maryland
was printed to attract adventurers to settled in the new province. On page 56
we find seventeen names "of the gentlemen adventurers that are gone in
person to this plantation". Among them we find "Richard Garard, son
to Sir Thomas Gerard, Knight and Baronet." [Savin's Reprints [No.II] It is
also said that Anne Cox, a widow, his sister, came with him. She was to become
the 2nd wife of Gov. Thomas Green and to die in Maryland.
Richard, who had been the cup-bearer to King James was to return to England,
where he was to become a distinguished soldier and to die on September 5th 1686. [Ives,
Burk's Peerage, Alice Norris Parran, Register of Maryland's
Heraldic Families,Series I and II.]
The First stop for the Ark
and the Dove was made at the Fortunate, now Canary Islands.
Then after sailing two hundred miles on a southerly course, the Ark
changed her course to the westward and sailed across the Atlantic
headed for the West Indies. Barbados was
reached January 3, 1634, where the Ark
joined the Dove. On February
24th, 1634 they dropped anchor at Point
Comfort, Virginia.
They were there several days and then entered the Chesapeake
and reached the Potomac. On St.
Clement Island these Maryland
colonists made their first landing on March 25th 1634.
According to the Book of Early Settlers in the
Land Office, Annapolis,
Dr. Thomas Gerrard emigrated to the province in 1638, four years after his
brother, Richard, and sister, Anne. Some historians identify this Dr. Thomas
Gerrard with the Second Baronet, but according to Burke's Peerage the Second
Baronet died on May 15th, 1630. [Parran]
On October
29th, 1639, Thomas Gerrard requested a land grant for
transporting himself and five able men into the province. On March 30th, 1640 a
survey of 1,000 acres of land lying to the north of St. Clement's Manor where
the town of Matapania now stands and including the island of St. Catherine's Creek
called St. Catherine's Island was made for Thomas. The warrant is signed by
Leonard Calvert on November 3, 1639. The original was in the Maryland
Historical Society. Among other of his land possessions taken from the rent
rolls of St. Marys County from 1639 to 1724 are: St. Clement's Manor, St.
Clement's Island, 11,400 acres granted to him by Lord Baltimore in 1638-9 and
re surveyed for Justinian Gerrard, his eldest son in 1678, Gerard's Freehold,
243 acres in St.Mary's
Hundred, surveyed April 21 1640, St. Winefreides Freehold
surveyed March 28, 1651,
in Charles
County,
Wiccocomico, 550 acres surveyed for him in 1666, Westwood Manor, surveyed in
1651. In all there are 32,343 acres. Some of the place names were: Bromley,
Chaptico, River View, Bushwood, Hackley, Little Hackley, Waterloo,
Dukehard, Branton, Longworth Point, and Chancellor Point. [ Parran] Bromley
Manor was purchased in 1719 by Charles Carroll of Carrollton.
[ibi]
The first proprietors of what is now called
Capitol Hill, Washington,
D.C.
were George Thompson and Thomas Gerrard, who patented the land jointly under
several titles in 1663. The largest of these grants were Duddington Manor and
Pasture, New Troy,
and St. Elizabeth. Thompson and Gerrard were remote kinsmen and jointly named
"Duddington". In 1664 Gerrard sold his interest to Thompson and in
1670 he disposed of the entire estate to Thomas Notley, who united the three
grants into one Manorial holding to
be known as Gerne Abbey Manor. Notley willed the
land to Notley Rozer, grandson of Jane [Lowe] Sewall Calvert, Landy
Baltimore.
In 1727, Anne Rozier, daughter of Notley, married
Daniel Carroll, uncle of Charles Carroll of Carrollton.
He died in 1734 leaving three children and a year later his widow married Col.
Benjamin Young. In 1758, Mrs. Young, again a widow, petitioned the court to
permit her elder son, Charles Carroll of Carrollsburgh to divide the property
with his half-brother, Notley Young. By this division, Cerne Abbey Manor went
back to the original component parts and Carroll was given Duddington Manor
with the remainder to Notley Young. Charles died about 1778 leaving, as
principal heir, his eldest son, Daniel, who very property called himself
"of Duddington Manor" He with his co-heir, Notley Young, negotiated
the sale of the property with President Washington's commission. Of the three
commissioners, who purchased the land for the Federal Government, Daniel
Carroll of Rock Creek was the brother of the Most Rev. John Carroll, first
Catholic Bishop in the United States and uncle of David of Duddington's first
wife, Anne Brent, whose brother, Robert, was to be the first mayor of
Washington D.C. This purchase by the Federal Government took place one hundred
and twenty-seven years after George Thompson and Thomas Gerrard acquired the
original title. [Margaret Bret Downing, The American Capitoline Hill and it's
Early Catholic Proprietors, The Catholic Historical Review, Vol.II, pp.
269-282]
That Thomas Gerrard was a Catholic is universally
admitted and it is but necessary to recall that he, as Lord of St. Clement's
Manor, is the historical personage always cited to prove the broad toleration
of Maryland's
charter. He was fined 500 pounds of tobacco, no light penalty, for locking a
Protestant chapel and refusing to open if for service located on his property.
He is also brought forth to prove the Court Leet and Court Baron held on his
manor from 1659 to 1672. Thomas was one of the first doctors or
"chirurgeons" in the province. A list of his patients may be found in
the administration Accounts of the colonial courts. As early as 1639, Richard
Lee and his wife of Virginia
died at his home having come to him f...........(sic)
Thomas patented 1,000 acres on the Nomini River on
October 18, 1650 in Westmoreland County,Virginia. He moved there after he lost
his Maryland
estates in the revolution of 1659 under his friend, Josias Fendall. The
Assembly met at Thomas's home, Bromly and Buchwood the home of Robert Slye, his
son-in-law. They issued the first declaration of Independence
in America
and Gov. Fendall proclaimed Maryland
a republic. [ Douglas S. Freeman, Geo. Washington, S.R. Hardy, Colonial
Families of the Southern States of America,
and Side-Lights on Maryland
History.]
Thomas married Susannah, dau. of Justinian Snow who also immigrated
from England
as his first wife. He had the following children;
1.Justianian Gerrard..the eldest married Sarah,
widow of Wilkes Manunders.,but left no issue.
2.Elizabeth Garrad, who m. 1st, Nehemiah
Blackistone, 2nd, Ralph Rymer, and 3rd, Joshua Guilbert.
3.Susannah [Hannah] Gerrard, who m. 1st, Robert
Slye, and was given Bushwood by her father, which was built in 1667 and became
the sire of the first mint in the colony, and m. 2nd, Robert Ellyson [below].
4.Thomas Gerrad, who married a widow Curtis, but
died without issue.
5.Frances Garrard, who married 1st, Thomas Specke,
and second Dr. Valentine Peyton, and 3rd, Capt. John Appleton, and 4th, John
Washington, great grand-father of George Washington, after her sister's death
in 1676.
6.Anne Gerrard, who married 1st, Walter
Broadhurst, and 2nd, Henry Brett, and 3rd, John Washington,above, who had no
children by the two Gerrard sister's.
7.John Garrard, who married Elizabeth, who married
2nd, James Johnson after his death in 1678.
8.Patience Garrard, who married Daniel Hutt, and
second John Crabbe.
9. Janette Garrard, who married Richard Eltonhead.
10. Judith Gerrard, who married John Goldsmith.
11.Mary Garrard, who married Kenelm Cheseldyne
III.
12. Rebecca Gerrard, who married Hon. Charles
Calvert, Governor of Maryland, 1720-1728, uncle of Lord Baltimore. [Parren,
Freeman, Wm.& Mary
College
Quarterly,Vol.4 and 5.]
It seems that Susannah, Thomas's first wife, died
in Maryland. He
then married second in Virginia Rose Tucker. She already had a daughter Sarah,
who married the prosperous immigrant, William Fitzhugh. After Thomas's death,
his widow, Rose, contracted a third marriage with John Newton, who had himself
been married twice previously and had several sons. We know only that Thomas's
eldest son and his daughters, Elizabeth,
Susannah, Frances,
and Patience were born in England
and by his first wife. In his will he mentions his three sons, two, Justinian
and John by name, and five daughters, one Mary by name. He only refers to the possibility
of children by his second wife, Rose. He wills his "title" to his son
Justinian. His son, John, had one son, John Jr., but he died without issue, so
there are no descendants of Thomas by the name Gerrard.
In Westmoreland County where relationship was
general and the dominant class nearly unified, Thomas Gerrard, John Lee, Henry
Corbin, and Isaac Allerton symbolized even more than they executed in an
interesting documents to which they set their hand on March 30th 1670 at a time
when boundaries were often uncertain and the law required a periodic
"processioning" of each parish to mark property lines. To simplify
this these neighbors convenanted not only to set their boundaries clearly,but
to provide a meeting for the friendly celebration.
At the junction of Allerton's land with Gerrard's the four friends agreed to
construct a
Banqueting House to met with wives, heirs, and
friends yearly. All neighbors were, however, not so friendly. Two, Richard and
his wife, Anna Cole, were of a type not frequent in Virginia.
In 1664 Mrs. Cole had been committed to the custody of the sheriff "upon
suspicion of the murder of Rose Parker". Of this charge she must have been
acquitted, but she did not bridle her tongue and evidently the Coles looked
upon Thomas Gerrard and his two daughters, Anne and Frances, as enemies and in
due time the Garrard's had to bring charges of libel against Mrs. Cole. It
appears the Gerrards won the case. John Washington was one of the Justices of
the Court and subsequently married Anne after the death of her second husband
and Frances, after Anne's death. [Freeman,Vol.1.p.2; 18ff]
Thomas Gerrard died between Feb.5th, 1672, when he
made his will and Dec.15th 1673, when it was proved. According to it he was to
be buried as close as possible to his first wife, Susannah [Hall of Records,Annapolis,MD,
Wills 1, ff. 567-73;Testamentary Proceedings 6, ff. 23, 48-55, 163-64.]
Gen.I- Captain Robert Ellyson, The Emigrant:
Capt. Robert Ellyson came from Maryland with
Thomas Garrard and patented 577 acres in New Kent County, Virginia. It is
likely that he came from England
under the sponsorship of Gerrard and that they may have been distant relatives,
since an ancestor of Thomas had married a daughter of Cutbert Ellyson. He married
Susannah [Hannah], Thomas' daughter and the widow of Robert Slye. Capt. Robert
Ellyson, also called Doctor, formerly resided in St. Mary's Parish,Maryland.
Part of his Virginia
land was in James
City
County and he served
as High Sheriff of both counties, and as Sergeant at Arms of the House of
Burgesses, 1657-58. He was a Burgess from 1656 to 1663. He had two children by
Thomas Gerrard's daughter: Hannah who married Capt. Anthony Armistead, who
served as a Burgess from 1693 to 1699, and a member of the Court Martial, under
Sir William Berkeley in 1676 to try the Bacon insurgents, and Gerrard, below.
Capt. Robert Ellyson died about 1688.
Anthony and Hannah [ Ellyson] Armistead had among
other children, Robert [d.1742], who married first the daughter of Robert and
Anne [Bray] Booth, whose daughter, Mary [1761-1792] married Hon. John Tyler, a
descendant of John Page, and they were the parents of John Tyler, the tenth
president of the United States.
Gen.II- Gerrard Ellyson:
After his father's death Gerrard Ellyson patented
his land as his "son and heir". He married Anne, the daughter of John
Myhill of Elizabeth
City
and their children were:
1.John Ellyson, baptized in 1668 in St.Peter's
Parish, New Kent, VA.
2.Gerrard Ellyson.
3.Robert Ellyson, who died in Chesterfield
about 1761.
4.Elizabeth Ellyson, who married John Johnson Jr.
on 6th Aug.1725.
5.Hannah Ellyson who married Andrew Crew in 1720.
6.William Ellyson, who married Agnes, also a
daughter of John Johnson of Hanover
County in 1772.
7.Judith Ellyson, who married in 1726 James Ladd.
8.Cecelia Ellyson, who married Thomas Ellyson, her
cousin in 1729.
9.Ursula Ellyson,who married William Ladd in 1730.
Anne [Mayhill] Ellyson died in
Elizabeth
City County
and her will is dated January
7th 1727. [ Based on Ellyson Family, Tyler's
Quarterly Magazine,Vol.10.p.32.,Lorand V.Johnson, The Ancestry of William and
John Johnson. p.151 and Hardy pp. 25 and 518.]
Note by RCL: This account differs slightly from
the genealogy I have recorded in this Personal Ancestry File. That account is
based on The Founders of the Maryland
Legislature 1635-1789, Vol 1, p348.
More About THOMAS GERARD and JANE UNKNOWN:
Marriage: Bef. 1586
Child of THOMAS GERARD and JANE UNKNOWN is:
i. JOHN GERARD 2,
b. New Hall,,England;
m. ISABELL UNKNOWN.