| Barony Gerard | |
|---|---|
  Argent, a saltire gules | |
| Creation date | 18 January 1876[1] |
| Creation | Third |
| Created by | Queen Victoria |
| Peerage | Peerage of the United Kingdom |
| First holder | Robert Tolver Gerard, 1st Baron Gerard |
| Present holder | Anthony Gerard, 5th Baron Gerard |
| Heir apparent | Hon. Rupert Gerard |
| Remainder to | Heirs male of the first baron's body lawfully begotten |
| Former seat(s) | Bryn Hall Garswood Hall New Hall |
| Motto | En Dieu est mom esperance ("In God is my hope")[1] |
There have been threebaronies created for the Gerard family who lived historically atBryn,Ashton-in-Makerfield, Lancashire andKingsley, Cheshire, in the 13th century. The third and current barony was created in 1876.
The earliest traceable member of the family that gave rise to the Barons Gerard was a William Fitz Gerard, who lived during the reign ofHenry III of England and obtained his lands inKingsley, Cheshire, by marriage Emma, daughter of Richard de Kingsley.[2] Traditional genealogical sources have shifted this man back in time and given the family a shared origin with theHiberno-Norman FitzGeralds,Dukes of Leinster in thePeerage of Ireland, and they adopted the same arms as that famous family,argent, a saltire gules,[1] before the 17th century in place of an earlier coat bearing a lion.[2] They were noted as having exasperatedheralds by long ignoring their entreaties to be allowed to record the family's pedigree, arms, and early land documents.[2]
The titleBaron Gerard, of Gerard's Bromley, was created in thePeerage of England on 21 July 1603 forSir Thomas Gerard (d. 1617), son ofSir Gilbert Gerard (d. 1593)Attorney General between 1559 and 1581 andMaster of the Rolls in 1581, who acquired estates at Gerards Bromley and Hilderstone, Staffordshire. The first Baron wasLord President of Wales between 1616 and 1617. The barony passed in direct line of succession until the death of the fifth Baron in 1684 when it passed to his second cousin Charles, a great-grandson of the 1st Baron Gerard, and upon his death without a male heir, to his brother Philip Gerard, aJesuit priest who died childless in 1733 when the barony became extinct.[3]
A second peerage was awarded the family in 1645, whenCharles Gerard, whose grandfather was the brother of the 1st Baron Gerard of Gerard's Bromley, was summoned to Parliament asBaron Gerard, of Brandon, Suffolk. The 1st Baron was subsequently madeEarl of Macclesfield in 1679, and the two titles passed together to his son and grandson,Fitton Gerard, 3rd Earl of Macclesfield and 3rd Baron Gerard, on whose death in 1702 the 1645 Gerard barony became extinct.[4]
The title ofBaron Gerard ofBryn in theCounty Palatine ofLancaster,[5] was created in thePeerage of the United Kingdom in 1876 for Sir Robert Gerard, 13thBaronet Gerard of Bryn.[6]
The title followed the line of the first Baron's eldest son until the death of the latter's grandson, the fourth Baron, in 1992. He was succeeded by his second cousin once removed, the fifth and present holder of the barony. He is the great-grandson of Captain the Hon. Robert Joseph Gerard-Dicconson, second son of the 1st Baron. The family seat was originallyBryn Hall, Ashton-in-Makerfield, but later Garswood Hall, followed by New Hall, a majestic, modernist, building of considerable size.[1][6]
The current baron, Anthony Gerard, 5th Baron Gerard, was educated atHarvard University and lives in New York.[1]
_-_Portrait_of_Dutton%2c_3rd_Baron_Gerard%2c_of_Bromley%2c_Staffordshire.jpg)
Theheir apparent is the present holder's son, Hon. Rupert Bernard Charles Gerard (b. 1981).[1]
For the French Baron Gérard, created byNapoleon, seeFrançois Gérard.
