GERARD, Charles (1634-67)

The details of Gerard’s early life are obscure. Following the death of his father in 1640, Gerard was entrusted to the care of his maternal uncle, Mildmay Fane, 2nd earl of Westmorland. CCC, 90. It was presumably Westmorland’s influence that led to Gerard entering his guardian’s former college, Emmanuel, Cambridge, in 1649. Given his college admittance in 1649, it is unlikely that it was this Baron Gerard who that year was appointed gentleman of the bedchamber to the exiled Charles II. It is likely that the Gerard appointed to this post was the 4th Baron’s distant cousin Charles Gerard, Baron Gerard of Brandon (later earl of Macclesfield), who had left England for the continent in 1647 and who held military office with the exiled court during the 1650s. It seems likely that Schoenfeld’s attribution of activity at the exiled court to the 4th Baron of Gerard’s Bromley is similarly mistaken. M.P. Schoenfeld, Restored House of Lords, 30-31.

Little more is known of Gerard’s activities both in and out of Parliament until the upper House was restored in 1660. Even then his recorded contribution to the proceedings of the Lords is meagre and complicated by confusion with Gerard of Brandon. In 1660 he was included on the analysis of the upper House by Philip Wharton, 4th Baron Wharton, as a Catholic. Bodl. Carte 81, f. 63; Jones, Party and Management, 26. Wharton’s reasons for classing Gerard as such are unclear. No contemporary evidence has been found to support Wharton’s assertion and at least one source directly contradicts him. A survey of Staffordshire gentry dating from the early 1660s described Gerard’s ‘affections civil and military’ as being ‘loyal and orthodox’, in comparison to a number of leading Staffordshire figures who were listed simply as ‘Roman Catholic’. Collections for a Hist. of Staffs. (Staffs. Rec. Soc. ser. 4, ii.), 39. It is possible that he was the Gerard who had interests in the Tanfield colliery in Durham. Durham UL, Cosin letter bk. 2, 30.

Gerard took his seat in the House of Lords on 27 Apr. 1660 and began a lacklustre parliamentary career. He was present at just under half of the sittings in the first session of the Convention and his attendance thereafter was sporadic. In only one session, that of 1666-7, did he attend even a third of the total sittings, and he made no appearance at all at the sessions of 1661-2 and 1665. He was granted leave of absence on 11 June 1661; two days later he registered his proxy in favour of Gerard of Brandon. PA, HL/PO/JO/10/1/29. In July 1663 Wharton listed a ‘Lord Gerard’ as a likely opponent of the impeachment attempt on Edward Hyde, earl of Clarendon, by George Digby * [448], 2nd earl of Bristol. It is unclear whether this forecast related to Gerard of Gerard’s Bromley or Gerard of Brandon. The only occasion upon which it can be stated with any certainty that the former is known to have expressed an opinion in the House came on 23 Jan. 1667, when he was one of those who dissented from the decision to reject a right of appeal to the Lords in the bill establishing a court for resolving disputes concerning houses burnt down by the Fire of London.

By the time he had signed this dissent, Gerard’s health had begun to falter. On 1 Oct. 1666, and again on 29 Oct. 1667, he was granted leave of absence on grounds of ill health. Although he was able to attend two sittings each in November and early December 1667, the improvement in his health was short-lived. He died in London on 28 Dec. 1667, intestate. Administration of his estate was granted to his widow, who on three occasions during the 1670s (2 Dec. 1670, 4 Apr. 1677 and 14 Mar. 1678) petitioned the Lords claiming either privilege of peerage or privilege of Parliament for herself. On two of these occasions she appears to have been using privilege to protect men who were liable to arrest, one on a charge of felony. Gerard was buried on 25 Jan. 1668 in the family vault in Ashley, Staffordshire. Soc. of Genealogists, Ashley par. reg. transcripts. His title and estates descended to his only son.