Trent Dorset Map Walks

Thomas Gerard of Trent | Dorset Ancestors

Thomas Gerard was born at Trent in 1593. Educated at Gloucester Hall, Oxford, he was an historian, friend of Leicestershire historian, William Burton and an admirer of William Camden. It is only recently, since 1896, that Trent transferred from Somerset to Dorset. Thomas Gerard developed a liking for Dorset, following his marriage in 1618 to (Mrs) Ann Coker of Mappowder.

Their daughter, Ann, married Francis Wyndham of Trent in 1646 and in 1651 Francis and Ann provided a refuge for King Charles II, hiding him from the pursuing Parliamentarian soldiers as he travelled through Somerset on his way to Bridport and safety in France.

Thomas Gerard wrote the first book in English about Dorset but today it is still known as Coker’s Survey of Dorset, having been wrongly credited to his brother-in-law, John Coker, when the manuscript, missing its title page, was discovered and published a century after Thomas Gerard had written it. ‘ Coker’s Survey of Dorestshire – containing the Antiquities and Natural History of that County’ It is Gerard’s unfinished work about Somerset: ‘Particular Description of Somerset’ of which there is no doubt he is the author, which provides the proof that he, rather than his brother-in-law, John Coker, was the author of the Survey of Dorset. Both books use the same organised plan of work and start with a map of the county showing the names of the hundreds, followed by a general description of the County using headings such as: rivers, commodities and forests. He follows the rivers each in turn from their source, describing the towns along their route to the sea noting any important families living along the way.