Robert Gayer, MP

Family and Education bap. 21 Jan. 1672,1 1st s. of Sir Robert Gayer, K.B., by his 1st w. Mary, da. of Sir Thomas Rich, 1st Bt., M.P., of Sonning, Berks. m. (1) lic. 8 Nov. 1694, Elizabeth (d. c.Dec. 1725),2 da. of James Annesley, M.P., 2nd Earl of Anglesey, 1s. 3da.; (2) Elizabeth, s.p. suc. fa. 1702.

Offices Held

Sheriff, Berks, 1735-7.

Biography Robert Gayer was grandson of Sir John Gayer, lord mayor of London in 1647, who came of a Cornish family.3 His father’s second wife was sister of the Jacobite exile, Thomas Bruce, M.P., 2nd Earl of Ailesbury. In September 1714, before the King’s arrival,4 Gayer offered himself as a Tory candidate with Christopher Wren, for the nearby borough of Windsor. He was returned by a majority of one vote, but was unseated on petition; and when he stood again in 1722, he received only three votes. To enable him to pay his father’s legacies, he sold Stoke Park in 1723, going to live at Hurley, Berks.5 The date of his death has not been found.

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754 Author: R. S. Lea Notes 1. Stoke Poges par. reg. 2. PCC 6 Plymouth. 3. Gayer, Mems. of Fam. of Gayer. 4. Memo. by Chas. Aldworth, 10-14 Sept. 1714, Berks. RO. 5. VCH Bucks. iii. 307; Berks. iii. 155.