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Thomas Gerard retired to his 3,500 acre estate,
Gerard's Preserve, in Westmoreland, Virginia until his
Maryland lands were fully restored. He returned to
Maryland and continued his medical practice and real
estate dealings until the death of his wife Susannah,
1666. He then moved permanently to his Virginia
estate until his own death in 1673.
Why, after a long political career of exemplary
loyalty to Maryland's proprietor, is Gerard suddenly
embroiled in treason? In Causes of the Maryland
Revolution, the entire incident is attributed to the issue
of taxation. Is our ancestor, Dr. Gerard, the prototype
of the pre-Revolutionary firebrands who bring about a
war some 100 years later to halt what was perceived
as unfair taxation?
B
EDLAM
N
ECK
So who was Thomas Gerard?
Thomas Gerard, it seems, was frequently a
scandalous personality in a humorless, rigid and
sanctimonious society. This was a man whose passions