William Gerard, II, of Kingsley

William Gerard, II, of Kingsley

• Birth: 1245 Kingsley, Cheshire West and Chester, England, United Kingdom
• Death: 1316 (71) Tattenhall, Cheshire West and Chester, England, United Kingdom
• Son of William Gerard, Lord of Kingsley and Emma Gerard
• Husband of Margaret Fitzgerald
• Father of William III Gerard, of Kingsley and Cattenhal
• Brother of John Gerard

The Gerrards of Brynne & Wigan

An ancient and powerful land-owning family in Lancashire, particularly around the districts of present-day Wigan. The name Gerrard (sometimes spelt Gerard, Garret, Garrett or Gerart) is an old Anglo-Saxon name meaning "spear carrier" and is recorded in the Doomsday book of 1086. The Fitz-Gerrards of Brynne boasted an ancient ancestry going back to the times of Alfred the Great.

DeBretts identifies the Gerrard family as deriving its origin from the same ancestor as the Duke of Leinster, the Marquess of Lansdowne, the Lords Windsor, and many others. The descendants of Gerald or Gerard, third son of Walter Fitz-Other, continued the surname of Gerard, and eventually settled at the Brynne in Lancashire. Sometime around 1250 William Gerrard inherited Brynne Hall by marriage to the daughter and sole heiress of Peter de Brynne. The family seat Brynne (Bryn) Hall dates from the fourteenth century.

Documentation shows that the family owned lands around the Winwick, Standish, Hindley and Ashton-in-Makerfield districts of Lancashire in the mid-16th century.

In 1544 Thomas Gerratt had been made Earl of Hertford at Leith in Scotland and by 1555 William Garrett had become Lord Mayor of London. Subsequent family members became Attorney General and Chancellor of Ireland.

The family name is still recorded by Gerrard's Bridge on the nearby Leeds & Liverpool Canal as well as the Gerrard Arms pub in Aspull. The Gerrard family tomb is at All Saints Church in Wigan.