The place-name 'Hawstead' is first attested in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it appears as Haldsteada. The name is thought to mean 'a place of shelter for cattle'.[2]
Hawstead Place, previously the seat of the Drury family, is now a farmhouse. Sir William Drury was sheriff and knight of the shire for Suffolk.
Lady Drury's Closet (also known as the Hawstead Panels), now in Christchurch Mansion in Ipswich, is a series of painted wooden panels of early 17th-century date. They originally decorated a painted closet adjacent to a bedroom in Hawstead Place. It is believed they were made for Anne Drury, Lady Drury, wife of Sir Robert Drury, who died in 1624.
Lt Col Edward Robert Drury, son of Rev Sir William Drury, was the first general manager and president of the Queensland Bank of Australia now the National Australia Bank; he named his Queensland home 'Hawstead' in 1875.
Robert Drury (1539–1614), Knight, Lord of the Manor of Hawstead, and Knight of the Body to Kings Henry VII and Henry VIII. Speaker of the House of Commons (elected 4 October 1495), and Privy Councillor.
