Family and Education

b. 1684, s. of Col. William Norton of Wellow, Hants by Elizabeth, da. of Sir Thomas Norton, 1st Bt., of Coventry. educ. Bury g.s. m. Frances, da. of Sir Compton Felton, 5th Bt., M.P., of Playford Hall, Suff., uncle of Elizabeth Felton, w. of John Hervey, 1st Earl of Bristol, s.p. suc. fa. 1696; uncle Maj. Richard Norton to Ixworth Abbey 1708.1

Offices Held

Capt. and brevet-col. 1 Ft. Gds. 1710, res. Mar. 1714; dep. gov. Chelsea Hospital 1730-d.

Biography

Norton was the grandson of Col. Richard Norton, M.P., an intimate friend of Oliver Cromwell’s, governor of Southampton and later of Portsmouth. Returned on his own interest with the support of the 1st Earl of Bristol, with whom he was connected by marriage, he was described by Walpole in 1733 as having ‘been ever a steady Whig, and never swerved from his principles, or given a vote against us’.2 Continuing to vote with the Government in every recorded division till he retired in 1747, he died 28 Apr. 1748.

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: Romney R. Sedgwick

Notes

• 1. N. and Q. (ser. 10) vii. 330-2; Copinger, Suff. Manors, i. 337.
• 2. Letter Bks. of John Hervey, 1st Earl of Bristol, iii. 103-4.