Thomas Gawdy

Sir Thomas Gawdy SL (d. 5 November 1588) was a British justice and Member of Parliament. He was the second of three sons of Thomas Gawdy, all by different wives and all baptised Thomas, although his younger brother, Sir Francis Gawdy, changed his name at his confirmation, setting the legal precedent that it could be done. [cite web|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/10469/?back=,10467&_fromAuth=1|title=Oxford DNB article:Gawdy, Sir Thomas|accessdate=2008-10-07] The mother of this Thomas was Anne Bennett. His elder half-brother was created a Serjeant-at-law in 1552 before dying in 1556, while his younger brother, Francis, served as Chief Justice of the Common Pleas from August 1605 until December of that year. A member of the Inner Temple, Thomas was called to the bar in 1550, appointed a reader of his Inn in 1560 and treasurer in 1562. He was issued a writ to be called as a Serjeant-at-law in October 1558 and it lapsed on the death of Mary I; he was excluded from the list of Elizabeth I, possibly on his own request, but was renominated in 1567. In 1574 he was made a justice of the Court of King's Bench, and in 1578 he was knighted.

As a lawyer Gawdy made much of his connections in East Anglia; at a young age he had come under the patronage of the Earl of Arundel, representing him at the Parliament of 1553, but the main focus of his activities was Norwich, which he represented in 1557 and served as recorder of between 1558 and 1574. In 1548 he married Audrey Knightley, and her dowry and property was used to expand his own land. A year after she died in 1566 he married Frances Richers, and used the money from that marriage to buy family lands including Gawdy Hall, the family seat, and family lands at Redenhall and Harleston. He died at Gawdy Hall on 5 November 1588, and was buried at Redenhall Church.

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