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Gerard Chittocque Brandon (September 15, 1788 – March 28, 1850) was an American political leader who twice served as Governor of Mississippi during its early years of statehood.
Early life and education
Gerard Brandon was the son of Irish immigrant, Gerard Chittocque Brandon, who established and ran the 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 in Natchez, in the Territory of Mississippi, the second child and first son of the family. He was educated at Princeton University and the College of William & Mary, 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. In 1817 Gerard Brandon bought Windy Hill Manor. At his death, Windy Hill Manor was inherited by his daughter, Elizabeth, who married William Stanton. Elizabeth and William's descendants lived at Windy Hill Manor until the 1940s. The last in the line were three unmarried sisters, Elizabeth, Maude and Beatrice. When the last sister died in 1945, the house sat abandoned until 1965, when it was demolished.
After Margaret Chambers's death in June 1820, Gerard Brandon 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 61, on March 28, 1850 and was buried in a private family cemetery at his Columbian Springs Plantation in Wilkinson County, Mississippi.
Political life
A delegate to the constitutional conventions of 1817 and 1832, Gerard Brandon also helped draft Mississippi's first two constitutions. He served in the Mississippi Legislature and was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives in 1822.
Brandon became governor of Mississippi for the first time upon the death of Walter Leake, serving from Leake's death on November 17, 1825 until January 7, 1826, when David Holmes, the last territorial governor and first governor of the State of Mississippi was again inaugurated as governor.
Brandon became governor of Mississippi again on July 25, 1826 and served until January 9, 1832.