Francis Gawdy

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The gatehouse of Wallington Hall in Norfolk. Gawdy's wife inherited the hall which today is in a 580-acre estate. Wallington Hall Gatehouse.jpg
The gatehouse of Wallington Hall in Norfolk. Gawdy's wife inherited the hall which today is in a 580-acre estate.

Sir Francis Gawdy QS (died 15 December 1605) was an English judge. He was a Justice of the King's Bench, and Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. His country seat and estates were in Norfolk. [1]

Contents

Career

Family and name

Gawdy was the third son of Thomas Gawdy, and was baptised Thomas Gawdy, as were his two elder half-brothers, [2] Thomas Gawdy (d.1556) and Thomas Gawdy (d.1588). Francis then had his name changed at his confirmation, establishing legal precedent that a name given at baptism could be changed at confirmation. [3] [4]

Gawdy may have studied at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, matriculating in 1545, [2] but this might be Francis's half-brother, the Thomas Gawdy who died in 1588. [5] He was called to the bar at Inner Temple in 1549, becoming a bencher in 1558 and treasurer in 1571. He was reader at Lyon's Inn in 1561 and at the Inner Temple in 1566 and 1571. He had an unremarkable parliamentary career, elected to represent Morpeth for the 1571 election, but focused mainly on his legal career. He was made Serjeant-at-law in 1577 and Queen's Serjeant in 1582, and as Queen's Serjeant opened the prosecution against Mary, Queen of Scots.

Marriage and estates

Fincham Hall - one of the Norfolk houses Gawdy possessed. Fincham Hall.jpg
Fincham Hall – one of the Norfolk houses Gawdy possessed.

In 1563 Gawdy married Elizabeth, daughter of Christopher Coningsby. [2] Through this marriage he also obtained Fincham Hall (Fincham, Norfolk) [6] and Wallington Hall (Runcton Holme, Norfolk), which had belonged to Elizabeth's father, [7] Christopher Coningsby, [8] the son of William Coningsby. [9] Coningsby had been the Recorder in King's Lynn. [10]

Later career

Gawdy succeeded his elder brother, the middle Thomas Gawdy, as a justice of the King's Bench in 1588. With John Clench, Francis Wyndham [11] and William Peryam, he was one of the four justices appointed to hear causes in Chancery in the six months which intervened between the death of his kinsman the Lord Chancellor, Christopher Hatton (20 November 1591), and the appointment of his successor, John Puckering. [12] [13]

Gawdy took part in many of the major trials of this period, including that of Sir Walter Raleigh in 1603, and Gawdy was knighted the same year. Gawdy apparently expected to succeed William Peryam as Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer, but James I informed him he was being saved for a more senior position when it became available, and appointed Thomas Fleming to that position instead. [14]

Raising his granddaughter

The sole issue of Gawdy's marriage was his daughter Elizabeth. [7] In 1589, at Holdenby, she married William Newport (a nephew and heir of Hatton's), who changed his name to William Hatton (1560–1597): it was an occasion upon which Christopher Hatton demonstrated his celebrated predilection for dancing. [15] Elizabeth died during her father's lifetime leaving no male issue, but an only daughter, Frances (1590–1623), who was brought up by Gawdy.

In February 1605, without her grandfather's approval, Frances was married to Robert Rich, who became Earl of Warwick in 1619, [9] and after this marriage Gawdy broke off relations between himself and his granddaughter.

In August 1605, Gawdy was appointed Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, a position he did not live to enjoy, dying of apoplexy on 15 December at Serjeant's Inn. [2]

Death and burial

After his death, Gawdy's body was brought from London to Wallington; it is said that they could find no place to bury his body as he was refused space locally. [10] (Gawdy had depopulated the town around his hall and converted the church to a dog kennel or hay store.) As the smell of the body became offensive, he was eventually buried without ceremony at North Runcton church, and only paving stones were used to cover the grave. The parish register at North Runcton records that he was buried in the chancel by the local parson on 27 February. [6]

References

  1. 'Francis Gawdy', in E. Foss, The Judges of England, VI: 1603-1660 (Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, and Roberts, London, 1857), pp. 158-60 (Internet Archive).
  2. 1 2 3 4 D. Ibbetson, 'Gawdy, Sir Francis (d. 1605)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press 2004), subscription required for online access.
  3. Coke on Littleton (Institutes of the Lawes of England, the first part), chapter 3.a., Sir Edward Coke
  4. Walden v Holman (1704) 6 Mod 115, Ld Raym. 1015, 1 Salk. 6
  5. J. and J.A. Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses, Part I vol 2 (Cambridge University Press, 1922), p. 201 (Internet Archive).
  6. 1 2 3 W. Blyth, Runcton registers cited in Historical Notices and Records of the Village and Parish of Fincham (1863), p. 16 (Google). Retrieved 24 September 2008
  7. 1 2 J. Chambers (ed.), A General History of the County of Norfolk, Intended to Convey All the Information of a Norfolk Tour, with the More Extended Details of Antiquarian, Statistical, Pictorial, Architectural, and Miscellaneous Information; Including Biographical Notices, Original and Selected (1829), p. 72 (Google). Retrieved 24 September 2008
  8. Dashwood, G.H. (ed.). The Visitation of Norfolk in the year 1563, taken by William Harvey, Clarenceux King of Arms: Volume 1 (PDF). Norwich. p. 50.
  9. 1 2 Wikisource-logo.svg This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Rigg, James McMullen (1890). "Gawdy, Francis". Dictionary of National Biography . Vol. 21. pp. 79–81.
  10. 1 2 'A Tudor Rose in Bloom', The Times, 16 June 2006 [ dead link ] (The Times online). Retrieved September 2008
  11. Carlyle, E. I. (1900). "Wyndham, Francis"  . Dictionary of National Biography . Vol. 63. pp. 243–244.
  12. H.W. Woolrych, A Series of the Lords Chancellors, Keepers of the Great Seal, Masters of the Rolls (etc.) (J. and W.T. Clarke, London 1826), p. 23 (Google), citing Oldmixon's History, p. 600.
  13. E. Foss, The Judges of England, V: 1485-1603 (Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, and Roberts, London, 1857), pp. 397-98.
  14. "Gawdy, Francis (d.1605), of Wallington and Shouldham, Norf. History of Parliament Online". www.historyofparliamentonline.org. Retrieved 5 October 2023.
  15. N.H. Nicolas, Memoirs of the Life and Times of Sir Christopher Hatton (Richard Bentley, London 1847), pp. 478–9, and p. 502 (Hathi Trust).
Legal offices
Preceded by Chief Justice of the Common Pleas
1605
Succeeded by
Parliament of England
Preceded by
Unknown
Member of Parliament for Morpeth
1571
Succeeded by
Unknown