| Admin_History | John Gerard was born in Edinburgh on 30 May 1840, as the eldest son of Colonel Archibald Gerard, of Rochsoles, in Lanarkshire. Influenced by the Tractarian movement, his father withdrew from the Scottish Episcopalian Communion in 1848 and joined the Catholic Church, with the result that John and his younger brother Montagu were sent for their education to Stonyhurst.
He remained at Stonyhurst for six years, and in September 1856 entered the English Province of the Society of Jesus at Beamont Lodge at the age of sixteen. On becoming a Jesuit he bequeathed his inheritance, including the Rochsoles estate, to his brother Montagu.
After taking his B.A. degree at London, and completing the usual philosophical studies, Fr Gerard, then a Scholastic, taught the class of Grammar at Beaumont in its early days as a college (1862-1863) and was master of the higher classes at Stonyhurst from 1865 to 1870.
After this Gerard proceeded to St Beuno's College for his theology, and after a year's Tertianship in Belgium, was appointed Prefect of Studies at St Francis Xavier's College, Liverpool (1875-1879).
Subsequently he held the same office at Stonyhurst from 1879-1893, where he brought out his 'Stonyhurst Latin Grammar', and his great work, 'Stonyhurst College: a Centenary Record'.
In 1893 Fr Gerard was called to London to assume the editorship of 'The Month', and a few years later published his book on the 'Gunpowder Plot'.
From 1897 to 1900 he was Provincial of the English Province, before returning to his former work of writer and editor, a position he held until his death.
Fr Gerard died at Farm Street, London, on 13 December 1912. |