William Gerard

  Noted events in his life were:

• Background Information. ⁷¹³
William Gerard, junior, son and heir, from his father he received a moiety of Kingsley lordship, with Bradley, Catenhall and lands in Hawarden, 19 Edward III, aged 30 in 26 Edward III, and held lands in Eton near Chester in 1376. Married Joan, daughter and heiress of Peter de Bryn, lord of Bryn
~Ormerod's History of Cheshire, Vol. II, Gerard Pedigree, p. 131

• Background Information. ⁷²⁷
William married the daughter and heiress of Peter de Bryn or Bryhill, in Lancashire.
~Kimber & Johnson's The Baronetage of England, Vol. I, p. 32

• Background Information. ⁷⁶³
The family of Gerard came into Lancaster by the marriage of William Gerard of Kingsley, Cheshire, with Joan, the daughter and heir of Peter de Bryn, lord of Burnhull. Peter de Bryn was alive during the reign of Edward II.

Bryn hall, the residence of the lords of Burnhall, has been used as the designation of the senior line of Gerard since their settlement in Lancashire. The hall is located in the township of Ashton-in-Makerfeld, a manor in the barony of Newton, of which, the Gerards inherited two parts.

~The Visitation of Lancashire and a Part of Cheshire, A.D. 1533, part II, p. 182

• Background Information. ⁸²⁶
Thomas de Burnhull was followed by a son Peter [Whalley Coucher (Chet. Soc.), iii, 852; Thomas de Burnhull and his son Peter attested a charter. Peter de Burnhull was in possession of Ashton by 1246; Final Conc. (Rec. Soc. Lancs. and Ches.), i, 98], who married Avice, the heiress of Windle and other manors. In 1254 he obtained the right to erect a mill in Ashton [Final Conc. i, 116]. The son of Peter and Avice was Peter, who dying about 1295 [Assize R. 408, m. 60 d] was succeeded by his brother Alan. Alan, who was living in 1315, [Alan son of Peter de Burnhull was lord of Ashton in 1302 and 1305, as appears by pleas of those years; Assize R. 418, m. 4; 420, m. 3. He was lord of Skelmersdale in 1300; Final Conc. i, 189; ii, 143 n. He is also called Alan de Windle.] left a son Peter, and two daughters, Joan and Agnes. The son died before 1330, and his sisters became heirs of the property. [Assize R. 424, m. 2; De Banco R. 284, m. 119]

Joan married William Gerard, son of William Gerard, lord of a moiety of the manor of Kingsley, near Frodsham; [Ormerod, Ches. (ed. Helsby), ii, 96, and 131, 132] and Agnes married David Egerton of Egerton, near Malpas, but probably died without issue, as nothing is known of any claim to the Burnhull manors by her descendants. [Ibid. ii, 628] The heiresses and their husbands were children at the time of their marriage, William Gerard being but thirty years of age in 1352, when his father died. [Ormerod, op. cit. ii, 96] Two years later he made a settlement of the manor of Ashton, the remainders being to his son Peter, and then to the heirs of Joan daughter of Alan de Burnhull. [Ibid. ii, 143, 144]

Little is known of the son, except that he became a knight. [The Bishop of Lichfield granted to Sir Peter Gerard a licence for his oratory at Brynn for two years from 7 Oct. 1379; Lich. Epis. Reg. Scrope, v, fol. 33. The writ of Diem cl. extr. after his death was issued 20 Feb. 1380\endash 1; Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxii, App. 353.] Sir Peter Gerard died in 1380, and was succeeded by his son Sir Thomas Gerard, who like others of the family is traditionally said to have been engaged in the wars of the time. [Ormerod, ii, 96; Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxvi, App. 195. In 1402 he made provision for the marriage of his son John with Alice daughter of Sir John Boteler; ibid. 196] At his death in 1416 he was found to have held the two-thirds of the manor of Ashton of Henry de Langton, baron of Newton, in socage by the service of 20s. a year, besides many other manors and lands in Lancashire. [Lancs. Inq. p.m. (Chet. Soc.), i, 123] His son and heir John, aged thirty at his father's death, succeeded. He died 6 November 1431, leaving a son and heir Peter, then twenty-four years of age. [Ormerod, loc. cit. The writ of Diem cl. extr. was issued 10 Dec. 1431, and writ of livery 14 Mar. 1431\endash 2; Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxvii, App. 301.] This son, afterwards Sir Peter Gerard, had a comparatively short life, dying on 26 March 1447, when the manors devolved on a minor, his son Thomas being but sixteen years of age. [Ormerod, loc. cit. The Lancashire inquisition taken after his death is preserved in Towneley MS. DD, no. 1465. ]

Sir Thomas Gerard, who came of age in 1452, [Proof of age was given at St. Mary's Church, Chester, on 2 Aug. 1452. John Leicester said that Thomas was of age on 15 July] was married in childhood to Douce daughter of Sir Thomas Ashton; afterwards he married Cecily, daughter of Sir Robert Foulshurst, by whom he had a son and heir Peter, and other children. [Ormerod, loc. cit.; Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxix, App. 132] He died on 27 March 1490; [Duchy of Lanc. Inq. p.m. iii, no. 21] his widow Cecily afterwards made a vow of chastity. [Lich. Epis. Reg. Hales, xiii, fol. 121b] The son Peter, aged thirty at his father's death, married Margery daughter of Sir Thomas Stanley of Hooton, and granddaughter and coheir of Sir John Bromley, by whom the estate of Gerard's Bromley came to this family. Peter Gerard died four years after his father.

~A History of the County of Lancashire, Volume IV, pp. 142-147

William married Joan de Burnhull, daughter of Peter de Burnhull and Unknown ^{713,727,763,826}