William Gerard (c. 1551–1609), of

Harrow Harrow may refer to: Places * Harrow, Victoria, Australia * Harrow, Ontario, Canada * The Harrow, County Wexford, a village in Ireland * London Borough of Harrow, England ** Harrow, London, a town in London ** Harrow (UK Parliament constituency) ...

, Middlesex, was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1584 and 1593.

Biography

Gerard was the eldest son of

William Gerard Sir William Gerard (1518–1581) was an Elizabethan statesman, who had a distinguished record of government service in England, Wales and most notably in Ireland. He sat in the House of Commons for Chester for many years, and was Vice-President ...

and his wife Dorothy, daughter of Thomas Page of Sudbury Court, Middlesex. He went to

Harrow School (The Faithful Dispensation of the Gifts of God) , established = (Royal Charter) , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent schoolBoarding school , religion = Church of E ...

and Trinity College, Cambridge from where he graduated with a BA in 1565 and a MA in 1572. He was admitted to Gray's Inn in 1572 and was

called to the bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

in 1580. Gerard represented the constituency of Wigan for Queen Elizabeth's parliaments of 1584 (her 5th), 1586 (6th) and 1593 (8th). He was a

Justice of the Peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

in Middlesex from 1591. He died on 23 August 1609, and was buried at Harrow.

Family

Gerard married Dorothy, daughter of Anthony Ratcliffe, alderman of London. They had eight sons and six daughters, including

Gilbert Gilbert may refer to: People and fictional characters * Gilbert (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters *Gilbert (surname), including a list of people Places Australia * Gilbert River (Queensland) * Gilbert River (South ...

his heir.

Notes

References

* Year of birth uncertain 1609 deaths Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge English MPs 1584–1585 English MPs 1586–1587 English MPs 1593 People educated at Harrow School {{England-politician-stub