Fitton Gerard, 3rd Earl of Macclesfield

Fitton Gerard, 3rd Earl of Macclesfield (15 October 1663 – 26 December 1702), was an English peer, styled Hon. Fitton Gerard until 1701.

Biography

He was the younger son of Charles Gerard, 1st Earl of Macclesfield, and represented several constituencies, mostly in Lancashire, in the House of Commons of England, before succeeding his brother Charles Gerard, 2nd Earl of Macclesfield, to the earldom in 1701. He was appointed a deputy lieutenant of Lancashire that year, but died in the following year, the earldom becoming extinct.

After his death, there was a long legal dispute between the Duke of Hamilton, and Lord Mohun over who should succeed to Gawsworth Hall and Macclesfield's estates. Hamilton's claim was through his wife, Elizabeth Gerard, a granddaughter of Charles Gerard, 1st Earl of Macclesfield, while Mohun's was as the named heir of his friend the second earl of Macclesfield. On 15 November 1712, the two men fought a famous duel in Hyde Park, Westminster, described in Thackeray's The History of Henry Esmond and in Bernard Burke's Anecdotes of the Aristocracy.