In 1640, as Deputy Lieutenant of Dorset, he was accused of being insufficiently enthusiastic in pressing men for the King's service, and was summoned for questioning by the House of Lords and Attorney General, but apparently was able to explain himself sufficiently that in the following year, on 25 June 1641, he was created a baronet.
On the outbreak of the Civil War, he remained loyal to the Crown, and stopped attending the Commons, yet made a £500 loan to Parliament when ordered to do so.
Nevertheless, he managed to gather together a further £500 to contribute to the court in exile of the young Charles II, but the man entrusted with secretly transmitting the money to the King, Sir Gilbert Taylor, kept it for himself.
In token of his loyalty, the King ordered that Sir Gerrard should be annually sent a number of deer from the New Forest, and in 1662 he was also appointed Commissioner for Crown Lands in Dorset.
In 1665, when the court had moved temporarily to Salisbury because of the plague in London, Sir Gerrard had the honour of entertaining the King and Queen at his house at Moor Crichel.