Background
Edward Norris was born in 1584 in Gloucestershire, England. He was the son of Edward Norris, vicar of Tetbury in Gloucestershire.
Edward Norris was born in 1584 in Gloucestershire, England. He was the son of Edward Norris, vicar of Tetbury in Gloucestershire.
Norris was matriculated at Balliol College, Oxford and in 1599, was awarded the degree of Bachelor's degree by Magdalen Hall in 1606/7 and that of Master's degree in 1609, and was rector of Anmer in Norfolk in 1624.
Norris lived at Tetbury and Horsley, Gloucestershire, as a teacher of youth, as well as minister.
In 1635 he published A Treatise Maintaining that Temporall Blessings Are to Bee Sought and Asked with Submission to the Will of God. Wherein Is. Also a Discovery of the Late Dangerous Errours of Mr. John Traske; in 1637 he issued Reply to John Traske's True Gospel Vindicated; and in 1638, a second reply entitled The New Gospel Not The True Gospel.
John Traske was an antinomian in London, and Norris mingles theological argument with coarse personal abuse. From these pamphlets it appears that his congregation had sailed for America about 1636, and that he had hoped to accompany them. Incidentally Norris shows no love for the "Jacobites or semi-separatists, " believing evidently in remaining inside the establishment.
In July 1639 Norris and his wife, Eleanor, were in New England, where they became members of the Boston church. In September, in response to invitations, he obtained permission to move to Salem as assistant to Hugh Peter; and on March 18, 1639/40, he was installed as teacher over the Salem church, almost all the ministers of the colony being present. He received one hundred acres of land and sixteen of meadow, and a salary of sixty pounds.
In 1642 Norris wrote a defense of the standing council in answer to a pamphlet by Richard Saltonstall; in 1646 he preached the election sermon; in 1651 he was joined with John Cotton and John Norton to convince William Pynchon that his book, The Meritorious Price of our Redemption (1650), was heretical; in 1653 he urged the Commissioners of the United Colonies, by speech and letter, to prosecute vigorous war against the Dutch of New Amsterdam; in 1656 he received John Whiting as assistant in his ministry; in 1658 he was stricken speechless in the pulpit; and in May 1659 his death was so imminent that the town voted to pay the funeral expenses.
Quotes from others about the person
"He quieted alarms by inspiring a military courage, and in a well directed charity, with a timely consent to the incorporation of towns around him, he finished in peace the longest life in the ministry which had been enjoyed in Salem". Winthrop called him "a grave and judicious elder. "
His wife was Eleanor.
