Career
He was a Roman Catholic landowner in Staffordshire, and came forward as a witness in the defence of the accused Catholic aristocrat, William Howard, 1st Viscount Stafford, which led to his own death in prison, although he had never been brought to trial. He was trustee for them for some small properties. This was the family who had sheltered Charles II after the battle of Worcester.
And after dinner the party visited the Royal Oak, the tree in which Charles had hidden.
This circumstance came to the knowledge of the notorious Plot informer Stephen Dugdale, and became the occasion of Richard"s imprisonment and death. Dugdale accused him of having contributed to the funds of the alleged plotters (perhaps with some reference to the pensions paid for his boys at Street-Omer) and of having conspired to murder the King.
Dugdale"s principal target was not Gerard himself but Lord Stafford, who was executed for treason in December 1680, largely on Dugdale"s evidence. Gerard would have been a crucial alibi witness and his death seriously undermined Stafford"s defence (which Stafford, like all those accused of treason in that era, was obliged to conduct himself, without benefit of legal counsel).
Examined by the Lords" committee (19 May 1679) he confessed to the meeting at Boscobel, and was thrown into Newgate Jail.
There he was kept ten months without trial, before falling ill of gaol fever and dying. He was the son of John Gerard of Hilderstne, Staffordshire and grandson of Sir Gilbert Gerard. In 1603 Gilbert"s son Thomas Gerard, uncle of Richard, was made Baron Gerard of Gerard"s Bromley, County Stafford.
Philip never claimed the title, and gave up all rights to the estates for a small yearly pension of £60, being obliged to leave the country by the action of a near connection, the Duke of Hamilton, who advertised the reward of £1,000 for his arrest as a priest.
(The four lords who have been among the English Jesuits all lived at the same time. Philip Gerard (d 1733) was the contemporary of Father Gilbert Talbot (d 1743), who became Earl of Shrewsbury in 1717.
Also of Father William Molyneux (d 1754), who was Viscount Sefton in 1745. Also of Father Charles Dormer (d 1761), who was Baron Dormer in 1728.).