NORBURY, Sir John

This MP was the second son of John Norbury, a man of modest origins from Cheshire who in a remarkable career became Henry IV’s friend and his first treasurer of England.3 The Commons 1386-1421, iii. 843-6. The King stood as godfather to young John’s older brother, Henry, and looked kindly on both boys. Almost certainly at the King’s request, Ralph Neville, earl of Westmorland, who held the lordship of Richmond for life by royal grant, settled on John Norbury the father the manor and advowson of Chesthunt in Hertfordshire, which was parcel of the lordship, to hold for his lifetime; and when, on 1 June 1412, the King extended this grant, he gave successive remainders in the property to Norbury’s wife Elizabeth and their two sons, both still in their infancy, stipulating that Chesthunt would not revert to the Crown until all four Norburys had died. On the same terms and on the same day, the couple and their two sons received a royal grant of the alien priory of Greenwich and Lewisham with all its estates, to keep for the duration of the war with France.4 CPR, 1408-13, pp. 404-5.

Like his brother, John fought in the wars across the Channel, although his military career proved to be undistinguished in comparison. While still young he served among the mounted men-at-arms in Sir John Fastolf’s company on the field at Pontorson in March 1427; two years later he was at the siege of Orléans serving under Sir Geoffrey Fitzhugh; in November 1429 he was mustered at Neufchatel under the command of Edmund Beaufort, earl of Dorset; and a year later he was listed among Matthew Gogh’s soldiers camped outside Louviers.5 Bibliothèque Nationale, fr. 25767/216; 25768/428; nouv. aqu. fr. 605/113; Add. Ch. 7967. At Christmas 1430 Norbury was named among the henchmen of the queen (Henry VI’s mother Katherine de Valois) for whom were purchased ‘draps et furres’ according to their status, but whether the queen was then in France with her son, or more likely in England, is not clear.6 PPC, iv. 77. By early 1432 he was back in the field at Avranches as a man-at-arms in the retinue of Robert, Lord Willoughby, while by the end of 1436 he had joined Sir Nicholas Burdet’s force at Evreux.7 Bibliothèque Nationale, fr. 25770/677; Evreux, Archives Départementales, 11F 4069. But disaster struck. In unknown circumstances he was taken captive by the enemy, and by the autumn of 1438 had fallen into the hands of Jean de Vendôme, vidame of Chartres, and been put to the massive ransom of 11,000 gold salus (about £1,833). As a younger son he had no chance of paying such a sum, and it is probable that Vendôme made an inflated demand as a means of discharging his own undertakings to Walter, Lord Hungerford†, who had captured the vidame in 1432. In any event, John was soon released.8 S.J. Payling, ‘War and Peace’, in Soldiers, Nobles and Gentlemen ed. Coss and Tyerman, 247-8; The Commons 1386-1421, iii. 451; Add. Ch. 5833. Eventually, he received his own command, first as captain of Pont-d’Ouve, and then as captain of the garrison at Arques (where he replaced his stepfather Sir John Montgomery*). His service at Arques was not continuous, for (Sir) Walter Devereux I* took over from him in the autumn of 1442, and although he commanded Arques again from September 1443, after just five months he departed for England on 23 Feb. 1444.9 Bibliothèque Nationale, fr. 25766/735; 25777/1675.

It is difficult to account for Norbury’s election to Parliament for Surrey in 1445. He had no experience of local administration at home, and only his years of military service to commend him. None of the widespread estates acquired by his father (and worth as much as £300 p.a.) were situated in the shire which elected him, and he himself is not recorded having any landed possessions there. In fact, it is strange that it was John who was elected and not his brother Sir Henry, who had acquired the valuable manor of Stoke Dabernon in Surrey by marriage to the Croyser heiress. The electoral indenture which might have thrown some light on the circumstances of his return has not survived. The Parliament of 1445 passed an Act laying down that future representatives of the counties should be ‘notable Knyghtes of the same Shires for the which they shall so be chosen; other ellys such notable Squiers, Gentilmen of birth, of the same Shires as be able to be Knyghtes’.10 PROME, xi. 499-501. Clearly, John did not fulfil the residential qualification, nor is it known for sure whether he had been knighted by the time of his election and before the Parliament met on 25 Feb. He had left the captaincy of Arques a few months earlier still styled esquire, and, indeed, the only record of his funeral monument refers to him in the same way. Yet he was dubbed knight before 3 June 1445, when appointed with the other knights of the shire to allocate tax rebates in their respective counties.11 CFR, xvii. 325. It may be therefore be the case that he was knighted at the coronation of Margaret of Anjou on 30 May, during the second parliamentary session.

There is no further record of Norbury after his appointment in July 1446 to complete the task of apportioning tax rebates.12 CFR, xvii. 332. His reversionary interest in the manor and advowson of Chesthunt had not been forgotten when the duke of Bedford had petitioned the Parliament of 1433 regarding his title to the same, and in July that year Norbury had been licensed to grant his rights in the advowson to the duke, who wished to donate it to the hospital of St. John of Jerusalem.13 RP, iv. 460-2 (cf. PROME, xi. 154); CPR, 1429-36, p. 296. However, when in the Parliament of 1447 it was agreed that the reversion of the manor and advowson should now be granted to King’s College, Cambridge, the only life-interests mentioned were those of Norbury’s mother Elizabeth and his brother Sir Henry. It must be presumed, therefore, that he was no longer alive.14 PROME, xii. 16-19. Norbury was buried next to his father in the Greyfriars, London, which later also became the resting place of his brother and other members of the family.15 Collectanea Topographia et Genealogica ed. Nichols, v. 387-8.