Philip Gawdy

Philip Gawdy (13 July 1562 – 27 May 1617) was an English landowner, politician, and letter writer.

Career Gawdy was the son of Bassingbourne Gawdy, senior, and Anne Wotton. He wrote of fabrics and fashion at court to his sister-in-law-Anne.

Gawdy was a Member of Parliament (MP) for Thetford in 1589, Eye in 1593, Thetford in 1597, Sudbury in 1601, and Dunwich in 1604 and 1614.

Gawdy's relatives in Norfolk asked him to commission clothes in the latest London fashion for them, including hats and a farthingale.

In later years, Gawdy mostly lived at West Harling. In 1605 his nephew, Bassingbourne's son, Framlingham Gawdy, had an unsuitable affair or involvement with a Mistress Havers, according to the report of Elizabeth Kitson. Gawdy took him to London, showing him the lions at the Tower of London, the royal tombs at Westminster Abbey, and the court, where his "cousins" Mary Gargrave and Elizabeth Southwell, the latter from nearby Woodrising, Norfolk, were maids of honour to Anne of Denmark.

Gawdy married Bridget (died 1609), daughter of Bartholomew Strangman of Hadleigh, Essex. He died in London on 27 May 1617.