Gervásio Pires Ferreira was born in the freguesia (parish) of São Frei Pedro Gonçalves, Recife, Pernambuco, in the early hours of the morning of 26 June 1765, being the twelfth child of the rich Portuguese trader Domingos Pires Ferreira and his wife D. Joana Maria de Deus, born in Pernambuco.

[5] On 11 March, he received from the rebels the position of "President of the National Treasury", replacing Cruz Cabugá,[5] being tasked with examining the republic's fiscal system and to propose reforms and improvements that he considered necessary.

[6] Shortly afterwards he was elected advisor, and with the end of the republic, he was arrested on 25 May 1817, and taken with many others in the locked hold of the ship Carrasco to the prisons of the city of Bahia.

[7] When Pernambuco rebelled again in 1821, Gervásio Pires offered himself to the governor, Luís do Rego, to be one of those sent to the Junta of Goiana tasked with proposing peace for the last time.

[14] He was buried in the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary of the Black Men, in the freguesia (nowadays a bairro [neighborhood]) of Boa Vista, Recife.