John Norton

Background

John Norton was born on May 6, 1606 in Stortford, Hertfordshire, England. He was the eldest son of William and Alice (Browest) Norton, and grandson of William Norton of Sharpehow, Bedfordshire.

Education

The boy studied under Alexander Strange of Buntingford, and at fourteen proceeded to Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he received Bachelor's degree in 1623/4 and Master of Arts degree in 1627.

Career

For a short time Norton was an usher at Stortford Grammar School and curate there. He then became private chaplain to Sir William Masham of High Lever, Essex, and a determined foe of Antinomianism. It is said that his uncle offered him a good benefice and also that he was offered a fellowship at Cambridge but that he declined them both because of his growing Puritanism.

He took ship for New England in the fall of 1634, in company with Thomas Shepard, but was turned back by a severe storm and did not make another attempt to embark for nearly a year. He reached Plymouth in New England in October 1635. Here he preached and was invited to remain, but he preferred to settle in Massachusetts Bay, and became "teacher" in the church at Ipswich. He was admitted as a freeman May 17, 1637, but was not ordained until February 20, 1638. At once upon his arrival, he took his place among the leaders of the colony. He had come just in time for the Antinomian controversy and in 1637 was an influential member of the Synod convened to adjust the differences arising from it. Incidentally, he is partly responsible for the loss of valuable papers connected with it. John Cotton's son, charged by his father with destroying all his papers, hesitated to do so and put the question as a point of conscience to Norton, who decided for their destruction.

In 1646 Norton was chosen to go with Winthrop as a special agent to England, but the plan was abandoned.

When John Cotton was dying, he suggested Norton as his successor in the pastorate of the First Church of Boston, and after his death, Norton took his place. He had some thought of returning to England, however; the church at Ipswich was reluctant to dismiss him, and it was only after three years and a sharp dispute between the Ipswich and Boston churches as to which should have the benefit of his ministry that he was installed at Boston, July 23, 1656. Meantime, on October 18, 1654, he had been appointed an Overseer of Harvard and a week later, with Richard Mather, had been chosen to offer the presidency of the College to Charles Chauncy.

In 1662 he accompanied Simon Bradstreet as agent to present the colony's petition to Charles II, an embassy which signally failed, owing in no small part to the Quaker persecution. On the return of Norton and Bradstreet the disgruntled elements in Massachusetts did not hesitate to say that their liberties had been sold out by the agents, and Norton lost much of his popularity with the reactionary party. It is said, though without much foundation, that the criticism hastened his death. He died suddenly of apoplexy just after preaching his Sunday morning sermon.

In 1645 he wrote a treatise in Latin on the government of the New England churches, in reply to inquiries from the Dutch clergy which was published at London in 1648. With Cotton and Edward Norris he was appointed in 1651 to convince William Pynchon that his book, The Meritorious Price of Our Redemption (1650) was heretical. Norton's answer, A Discussion of That Great Point in Divinity, The Sufferings of Christ (1653), was published by order of the General Court, and for his labor in preparing it he received £20. The following year he published The Orthodox Evangelist (1654), an extremely technical exposition of the Puritan system of theology. Other works were Abel Being Dead Yet Speaketh; or the Life and Death of John Cotton (1658); and The Heart of N- England Rent at the Blasphemies of the Present Generation, a bitter attack on the Quakers written by order of the General Court and published at Cambridge in 1659. His will disposed of an estate valued at the large sum of £2, 095, of which his library of 729 volumes amounted to over £300.

Achievements

• Norton took a leading part in the Synod and was active in drawing up the famous Cambridge Platform.

Works

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• book

  • Memoir of John Cotton

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

Religion

Norton took a prominent part in the persecution of the Quakers at the end of that decade, showing himself bigoted, narrow-minded, and tyrannical.

Views

In spite of the succeeding popular reaction, Norton was one of the few who held out firmly for the passage of laws inflicting the death penalty.

Personality

Norton was a learned man but with a narrow and technical mind, not at all comparable in humane outlook and breadth of vision to his predecessor, Cotton.

Connections

Norton married "a gentlewoman both of good estate and of good esteem. "

The day of his installation in Boston he married a second wife. Her Christian name was Mary and she has sometimes been confused with the Mary Mason who married Norton's nephew, John Norton, in 1678. Norton left numerous collateral relatives, but no children.

Father:

William Norton

Mother:

Alice (Browest) Norton

Spouse:

Mary Mason

Grandfather:

William Norton