Gerard Brandon - Early Life and Education

Early Life and Education

Gerard Brandon was the son of Irish immigrant, Gerard Chittocque Brandon, who established and ran Selma Plantation in Adams County, Mississippi and Dorothy Nugent, the daughter of Irish immigrants Matthew Nugent and Isabel MacBray. The couple moved to Mississippi from South Carolina sometime in 1785.

Brandon was born September 15, 1788, the second child and first son of the family. He was educated at Princeton University and William and Mary College, and served in the War of 1812. He later practiced law at Washington, Mississippi and was a successful planter, following his father's footsteps, in Adams County, Mississippi.

He married Margaret Chambers on January 18, 1816 in Bardstown, Kentucky. After Margaret's death in June 1820, Gerard married Betsy Stanton on July 12, 1824 in Adams County, Mississippi. The governor had a total of eight children with his two wives.

Brandon died, at the age of 62, on March 28, 1850 and was buried in a private family cemetery at his Columbian Springs Plantation in Wilkinson County, Mississippi.

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