Sir Gilbert Gerard was a prominent lawyer, politician, and landowner of the Tudor period. He was returned six times as a member of the English parliament for four different constituencies. He was Attorney-General for more than twenty years during the reign of Elizabeth I, as well as vice-chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and later served as Master of the Rolls. He acquired large estates, mainly in Lancashire and Staffordshire.
The 3rd Earl of Derby, a key early patron of Gerard.
Henry FitzAlan, 19th Earl of Arundel, another of Gerard's political patrons.
Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury 1559–75.
Sir Thomas Holcroft was a sixteenth-century English courtier, soldier, politician and landowner.
Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford and 1st Duke of Somerset. He knighted Holcroft in 1544 and was his key patron in the reign of Edward VI.
An unknown nobleman, thought to be Lord Grey de Wilton in 1547, by Gerlach Flicke, National Gallery of Scotland. Grey de Wilton commended Holcroft's conduct at the siege of Haddington.