THOMAS GERARD OF TRENT. 61 



name is found in very early records. He included many 

 coats of arms taken from the Lancashire pedigrees in his 

 heraldic tree painted in Trent Church, but it is certain that 

 according to the account in Hutchins' Dorset I., 609, the 

 ancestor had moved southward before these alliances were 

 made. He did not enter his pedigree at the Heralds Visita- 

 tions for either Dorset or Somerset in 1623 ; but his relation 

 John Gerard of Longhide in Purbeck, recorded his pedigree, 

 and also gave a shield which contained the bearings of no 

 Lancashire alliances, but a number of old Dorset families ; 

 and also included several quarterings which belonged 

 exclusively to the Trent branch of the family by the marriage 

 with Mary Storke. I have a strong suspicion that the 

 Heralds, to whom Thomas Gerard was well known, either by 

 accident or design assigned his shield to the Purbeck branch 

 without proper enquiries. 



The Gerard pedigree begins with William Gerard of 

 Bremhill, in Lancashire, who married Jane, sister and co-heir 

 of Peter de Bremhill. Two generations are skipped, and 

 their great grandson, also William, who was born about 

 1400, is found at Friar Mayne, co. Dorset, and married to 

 Edith, daughter and heir of Thomas Meeres of Osmington. 

 Of this marriage there were two sons, the younger, Robert, 

 being of Longhide in Purbeck. The elder son John was the 

 father of another John, who married Margaret, daughter 

 and heir of Walter Wells of Tincleton, and had issue another 

 John, with whom we find ourselves on firm ground. He 

 married firstly Dorothy, daughter of Paul Cook of Sussex, * 

 and secondly in 1528 Isabella Plompton, widow. He died 

 24th August, 1542, leaving property in Broadway and 

 Nottington, West Waddon in Portesham, and a moiety of 

 other property in West Totton and Chickerell, and four 

 burgages in Dorchester. William Gerard is his eldest son 

 and heir, and is forty years old and more, t 



* Brown Collections at Taunton Castle, Vol. 23, 134. 

 f Inq. p. m. J. G. ; C., 65, No. 43. 



