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Sir Gilbert Gerard, 1st Baronet of Fiskerton


Sir Gilbert Gerard, 1st Baronet of Fiskerton (c. 1632 – 24 September 1687) was an English soldier and politician. During the English Civil War he supported the Royalist cause. After the Restoration he sat in the House of Commons from 1661 to 1685.

Gerard was the son of Ratcliffe Gerard and his wife Jennet Barret, daughter of Edward Barret, of Pembrokeshire.

His family supported the Royalist cause during the English Civil War and at the start of the first war he was commissioned as a captain into the same foot regiment as his father (the colonel of the regiment was his father's twin brother, Gilbert Gerard (died 1646)). His brother John also served officer in the royalist army. From 1643 to 1646 Gerard was a captain of horse.

On 29 August 1645 a warrant was made out for Gerard to become a baronet, but formality of sealing it never took place. He also participate in the Second Civil War he was taken prisoner at the battle of St Neots after spending a year as a prisoner of war but was allowed to leave England a year later. He was back in England by 1654, when after travelling from Worcestershire he was arrested in London as one of those implicated in the Gerard's conspiracy and although his brother John was executed for his part in the plot Gerard was not tried banished and went and joined Charles II's court in exile. He returned to England after the death of the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell and was suspect member of a group of Cavalier agitators in the Bristol area.

In 1654 Gerard and John were both arrested on suspicion of being involved in the Gerard's conspiracy. Gerard was released without charge, but John was tried for high treason, was found guilty of plotting to assassinate the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell and was executed in May of that year.


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