Family and Education

b. c.1582, 1st s. of (Sir) Richard Norton† of Rotherfield and his 1st w. Mabel, da. of Henry Beecher, Haberdasher, of London.1 educ. Queen’s, Oxf. 1597, aged 15; M. Temple 1602; travelled abroad (Florence) 1608.2 m. bef. 1615, Amy (bur. 23 Mar. 1649),3 da. of Thomas Bilson, DD, bp. of Winchester 1597-1616, 2s. 2da.4 suc. fa. 1611;5 kntd. 10 Jan. 1611;6 cr. bt. 18 May 1622.7 bur. 4 June 1646.8

Offices Held

Sheriff, Hants 1613-14;9 steward to bp. of Winchester by 1614;10 j.p. Hants by 1616-44,11 commr. sewers 1617,12 subsidy 1621-2, 1641-2;13 dep. lt. 1625-44;14 capt. militia horse by 1625-42, col. militia ft. 1626-42;15 commr. to disarm recusants 1625,16 martial law 1626-8,17 Forced Loan 1627,18 oyer and terminer 1628-1636;19 freeman, Portsmouth, Hants 1628;20 ranger, Woolmer forest, Hants by 1630;21 commr. knighthood, Hants 1630,22 sewers, Hants and Wilts. 1629-30, Hants and Suss. 1638,23 repair, St. Paul’s cathedral, Hants. 1633,24 piracy, Hants and I.o.W. 1635-6,25 maltsters, Hants 1636,26 array 1642,27 rebels’ estates 1644.28

Biography

Norton’s ancestors acquired East Tisted by marriage in the early fourteenth century.29 He himself received a gentleman’s education at Oxford and the inns of court, completed by a tour to Italy in 1608 in the charge of a kinsman, Sir Stephen Lesieur. His father insisted upon the trip after Norton became involved in some romantic scandal and accepted a challenge to a duel; his temperament does not seem to have improved immediately, however, and while in Florence he managed to pick a quarrel with the marquess of Winchester’s eldest son.30

Norton entered into his inheritance in 1611, in which year he was also knighted. As sheriff of Hampshire in 1614, he conducted that year’s parliamentary election with obvious partiality towards his courtier-cousin, Sir William Uvedale*, and also towards Sir Richard Tichborne*, being allegedly prepared to risk the fine of £100 for making a false return.31 He probably also nominated Tichborne’s brother Sir Walter* and Edward Savage I* for Petersfield, where he had inherited some property.32 At the next general election Norton was returned with his brother-in-law Sir John Hippisley for Petersfield, but he played no known part in the 1621 Parliament’s proceedings. He did not sit again, but used his influence to secure Uvedale’s return for Petersfield in all the parliaments of Charles I’s reign.

During the 1620s and 1630s Norton proved a most conscientious local official, earning the praise of Hampshire’s lord lieutenant, Sir Edward Conway I*, for his ‘large and good heart that takes pleasure to exceed in kind and loving errands’, and his ‘very great care and good discretion’ in the business of the Forced Loan of 1626-7, to which he contributed £40 himself.33 At the outbreak of the Civil War he sided with the king.34 He was taken prisoner in 1644 and fined £1,000, later reduced to £500, on lands worth £1,500 p.a.35 He died in June 1646 and was buried at East Tisted; administration of his estates was granted in 1661 to his second son John, the third baronet, who represented Hampshire in the Cavalier Parliament, and thereafter sat for Petersfield until his death.36

Ref Volumes: 1604-1629

Authors: Virginia C.D. Moseley / Rosemary Sgroi

Notes

• 1. Soc. Gen. F.J. Baigent, Norton fam. notes; Beds. Hist. Rec. Soc. v. 160.
• 2. Al. Ox.; M. Temple Admiss.; SP98/2, f. 224v.
• 3. Hants Field Club Pprs. xix. 254.
• 4. J.S.W. Gibson, Mon. Inscriptions in Hants Churches, 35.
• 5. C142/332/170; PROB 11/118, f. 249v.
• 6. Shaw, Knights of Eng. ii. 150.
• 7. CB, i. 195.
• 8. Hants RO, 30M82/PR1, unfol.
• 9. List of Sheriffs comp. A. Hughes (PRO, L. and I. ix), 56.
• 10. STAC 8/293/11.
• 11. Hants RO, 4M53/140, f. 202v; 44M69/G3/1165.
• 12. C181/2, f. 297v.
• 13. C212/22/20, 21; SR, v. 88, 155.
• 14. E401/2586, p. 57; Add. 21922, f. 4v; CSP Dom. 1639-40, p. 353.
• 15. Add. 21922, ff. 5, 10v, 101, 135v.
• 16. Add. 21922, f. 38.
• 17. C181/3, f. 241; APC, 1625-6, p. 290; 1627-8, p. 318; CSP Dom. 1625-6, p. 419; 1627-8, p. 440.
• 18. T. Rymer, Foedera, viii. pt. 2, p. 145.
• 19. C181/3, f. 241; 181/5, f. 58.
• 20. Portsmouth Recs. ed. R. East, 350.
• 21. CSP Dom. 1629-31, p. 337.
• 22. Add. 21922, f. 174.
• 23. C181/4, ff. 49; 181/5, f. 115v.
• 24. GL, ms 25475/1, f. 13v.
• 25. C181/5, ff. 24, 58.
• 26. PC2/46, p. 273.
• 27. Northants. RO, FH133.
• 28. Docquets of Letters Patents 1642-6 ed. W.H. Black, 167.
• 29. VCH Hants, iii. 31.
• 30. HMC Hatfield, xx. 110-11; SP98/2, f. 224v.
• 31. Procs. 1614 (Commons), 390, 397; STAC 8/293/11.
• 32. C142/131/184.
• 33. Add. 21922, ff. 16, 99v, 119v.
• 34. HMC Portland, i. 51.
• 35. LJ, vii. 325; CCC, 848.
• 36. PROB 6/37, f. 39.