Brandon, Gerard Chittocque, 1788-1850

Gov. of Mississippi.

Born 1788 near Natchez, Mississippi; educated at Princeton and William and Mary; member of the state Constitutional Conventions of 1817 and 1832; speaker of the state House of Representatives; twice lieutenant governor and twice governor of Mississippi, 1825-1830.

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

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

Brandon was a delegate to Mississippi's constitutional conventions in 1807 and 1832, where he 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 for the first time upon the death of Governor Walter Leake,serving from Leake's death on 17 November 1825, until 7 January 1826, when David Holmes, the last territorial governor and first governor of the State of Mississippi was again inaugurated as governor. Holmes served a total of six months, when Brandon become governor again on 25 July 1826. He served until 9 January 1832.

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