Garrard was a younger son of Sir
William Garrard or Garret, Haberdasher (1518-1571), of
Dorney Court, Buckinghamshire, who bought the
manor of
Dorney in 1542, and became Lord Mayor of London in 1555. His mother was Isabel, daughter of Julian Nethermill, of
Coventry, and his paternal grandfather was John Gerrard,
alias Garret, of
Sittingbourne. He was born about 1546, if his tomb correctly recorded his age at death. John Garrard was admitted to the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers. He married Jane, the daughter of Richard Partridge, a citizen of the
City of London, and with her had thirteen children, including John (born about 1585), Benedict, Anne, Elizabeth, Ursula, Jane (baptized 1602), and at least two other daughters, these eight surviving infancy. In 1592-1593 he was elected to his first term as Master of the Haberdashers, and in the same year, being then elected alderman for Aldgate ward, was immediately chosen one of the two
Sheriffs of the City of London (during the mayoralty of Sir William Rowe). Becoming Master for his second term in 1601-1602, at
Michaelmas 1601 he was elected Lord Mayor of London (the term of office being for one year), and was knighted in 1602. a further £3,000 in the hands of the Haberdashers Company towards the foundation of
Monmouth Free Grammar School, and for almshouses for twenty poor old diseased, blind or lame people, in
Monmouth. As trustees on behalf of the Company, Sir John Garrard and Sir Thomas Rowe, aldermen, and Robert Offley and Martin Bond, citizens and Haberdashers, obtained a licence from King James I in 1614 to purchase land to the value of £200 a year towards this charity. They purchased the manor of Hatcham-Barnes, in
Deptford St Paul (formerly an endowment of
Dartford Priory, a nunnery), which long remained a part of Jones's Monmouth Charity. Sir John's name heads the list of "Honourable Senators" among the patrons of the new parish church of Trinity Christ-church, also called the "Temple of St James" (i.e.
St James Duke's Place), built in the ruins of
Holy Trinity Priory in Aldgate, who were present at the official consecration on the morrow of
New Year's Day (i.e. 26 March) in the mayoralty of Sir
Peter Probie (1622-1623). A prime mover in the development was Sir
Edward Barkham, lord mayor 1621-1622, whose eldest daughter Elizabeth had married Sir John Garrard's son John in 1611. Another benefactor was Sir Thomas Rowe. The church was new-built to accommodate the inhabitants of "The Duke's Place", who had formerly resorted to the old
St Katherine Christchurch nearby.
Estates According to
Cussans, the manor of Lamer, near
Wheathampstead, was sold to Sir William Garrard by a member of the Boteler family during the reign of Edward VI.
John Nichols stated that King James I visited
alderman Sir John Garrard at his seat of Lamer, on 19 July 1608. Sir John refers to his house of Lamer in his will of 1625. Lamer, or Delamer, became the seat of the Garrard baronets, the first of whom, John Garrard son of the lord mayor John, was knighted in 1614 and created baronet in 1623. This younger John held the manor of Wheathampstead, together with its mill, by lease from the Dean and Chapter of Westminster. The term of three lives, referred initially to himself, of Dame Elizabeth his wife, and of his brother Benedict: following Elizabeth Garrard's death (1632), the lifetime of their son John Garrard was added to the term of the contract. Bride Hall, Wheathampstead, was put into the hands of trustees for Sir John in 1608. Sir John Garrard jun., Bart., son of Sir John Garrard, had licence of entry upon lands in Hertfordshire and elsewhere on 20 June 1626 for 1 May 1627. The manor of
Southfleet in
Kent had been acquired by Sir William Garrard (senr.) in 1545-46. In 1603 (29 January 45 Eliz), Sir William Gerrard (junr.) of Dorney secured a definitive decree of possession of the manor of Southfleet, which he had previously enjoyed for fifty-seven years (claiming from the 36th and 37th years of Henry VIII, when the King had conveyed the manor to Sir
William Petre, who in 1 Edward VI conveyed it to Sir William Garrard), against the Dean and Chapter of Rochester.
Lord Keeper Egerton made an example of the defendants, whom he considered had deliberately and craftily concealed an inconsistency in the original enrolment in order to deprive Garrard of his title. Sir William Garrard junr. died in 1607, differences with his son Thomas remaining unresolved: Sir John Garrard disposed of Southfleet to
Sir William Sedley (died 1618) of
Aylesford.
Death and monument On 24 January 1616, Garrard's wife died; Garrard himself died on 7 May 1625, to be buried with his wife, and like his father, in the church of
St Magnus-the-Martyr, London. A monument to him, erected by his son Benedict Gerrard in 1629, survives there, and bears the following inscription: The younger son, Benedict, was appointed executor in his father's will. The will refers to houses and tenements nearby to his great mansion in St Martin's Lane, and to a tenement in Soper Lane, and also to the manor of
Exhall and to lands and tenements in Coventry and elsewhere in Staffordshire and Warwickshire which had come to him from the Nethermyll family. He clearly refers to his house called Lamer and other his lands in Hertfordshire, the contents of which he has already bargained and sold to his son Sir John Garrard the younger.
Garrard of Lamer His son and heir Sir John Garrard, or Gerrard, was created the first
baronet in 1623 (see
Garrard baronets). ==Arms==