NORTON, Sir Thomas (d.1631), of Northwood Chasteners, Milton-next-Sittingbourne, Kent

Little is known of the early life of this Member, whose family claimed to have been seated in Kent since the reign of Stephen.11 Add. 5524, f. 168v. He was knighted at Oatlands Park in Surrey during James’s summer progress in 1607.12 J. Nichols, Progs. of Jas. I, ii. 143. Returned for Christchurch in 1614 on the recommendation of the Catholic Lord Arundell of Wardour, he undertook to serve without wages and left no trace on the records of the Addled Parliament.13 Dorset RO, DC/CC, acc. 7998, unfol. (Arundell to Mayor of Christchurch, 14 Feb. 1614); J.K. Gruenfelder, Influence in Early Stuart Elections, 5, 23 n. 7. He sold Northwood in 1623, and in the following year applied for a licence to travel abroad.14 Hasted, Kent, vi. 180; Arch. Cant. xii. 384; APC, 1623-5, p. 392. If he went he had returned by 1625, by which time he was living with his son-in-law Sir James Hales at Reculver, in north-east Kent.15 Cent. Kent. Stud. U791/T290/1; Vis. Kent (Harl. Soc. liv), 69. The churchwardens there reported in 1626 that, since arriving in the parish, he had never attended church or received communion, which suggests that he may have been Catholic.16 Arch. Cant. xxv. 50. Norton died in 1631 and was buried in St. Mary Bredin, Canterbury.17 Add. 5507, f. 149v. His sons did not long survive him, and the family had died out by 1663.