Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 41.djvu/140

 

NORRIS, JOHN (1660?–1749), admiral of the fleet, was apparently the third son of Thomas Norris of Speke, Lancashire, and his wife, Katherine, daughter of Sir Henry Garraway [q. v.] His arms were those of the Speke family. His brother, Sir William Norris (1657?–1702), is separately noticed. John was probably born about 1660 (, County of Lancaster, iii. 754;, Knights, p. 491). His first promotion is said by Charnock to have been slow; but whatever his early service, which cannot now be traced, he was in August 1689 lieutenant of the Edgar, with Captain Sir Clowdisley Shovell [q. v.] Early in 1690 he followed Shovell to the Monck, which was employed on the coast of Ireland, and did not join the fleet till towards the end of the year. It was possibly for service under the immediate eye of the king, but certainly not ‘for very meritorious behaviour at the battle of Beachy Head,’ that on 8 July 1690 Norris was promoted to the command of the Pelican fireship. In December 1691 he was moved to the Spy fireship, in which he was present at the battle of Barfleur and the subsequent operations in the Bay of La Hogue [see ], though without any active share in them. On 13 Jan. 1692–3 he was posted to the Sheerness frigate, attached to the squadron under Rooke, and present with it in the disastrous loss of the convoy off Lagos in June 1693 [see ]. Norris's activity in collecting the scattered remains of the convoy was rewarded in September with advancement to the command of the Royal Oak. After a couple of months he was appointed to the Sussex, and then to the Russell, in which he went out with Admiral Russell to the Mediterranean. In December 1694 he was moved to the Carlisle, one of the squadron under James Killigrew [q. v.], which on 18 Jan. 1694–5 captured the French ships Content and Trident. Russell afterwards assigned much of the credit to Norris, and appointed him to command the Content, added to the navy as a 70-gun ship.

Early in 1697 Norris was sent with a small squadron to recover the settlements in Hudson's Bay which had been seized by the French. At St. John's, Newfoundland, however, on 23 July, he had intelligence of a French squadron, reported to be sent out to reduce St. John's. A council of war, said to have consisted mainly of land officers, decided to act on the defensive. Norris, it is said, had further intelligence that the French ships were the squadron of M. de Pointis [see ] escaping from the West Indies with the plunder of Cartagena; but the council of war declined to depart from their defensive attitude. In October Norris returned to England, where the inaction of his squadron was made the subject of popular outcry and parliamentary inquiry. Norris, however, was held guiltless, though his exculpation was generally attributed to the influence of Russell, the first lord of the admiralty, and suspicions of corruption and faction, if not treachery, in the conduct of the navy were widely expressed (, Hist. of his Own Time, Oxford edit. iv. 348). That Norris was backed up by strong interest seems certain. He was appointed to the Winchester, which he commanded during the peace, and in 1702 to the Orford, one of the fleet under Rooke in the unsuccessful attempt on Cadiz. During this time, 22 Aug., Norris had a violent quarrel with Ley, the first captain of the Royal Sovereign, Rooke's flagship, beat him, threw him over a gun, and drew his sword on him on the Royal Sovereign's quarter-deck. For this he was put under arrest, but, by the good offices of the Duke of Ormonde, was allowed to apologise and return to his duty on 30 Aug. The affair passed over without further notice, and Ley died very shortly afterwards (Rooke's Journal).

Still in the Orford, Norris was in the Mediterranean with Shovell in 1703, and in 1704 was one of Shovell's seconds in the battle of Malaga. In 1705 he was taken by Shovell as first captain of the Britannia, carrying the flag of the joint commanders-in-chief, Shovell and Charles Mordaunt, third earl of Peterborough [q. v.] In this capacity he assisted in the capture of Barcelona, and was afterwards sent home with the despatches, when he received a present of a thousand guineas, and was knighted on 5 Nov. (, Knights, p. 491). But Peterborough, who wrote of him as ‘a governing coxcomb,’ had conceived a strong dislike to him (Letters to General Stanhope, p. 6). Probably on that account he was not employed during the following year.

On 10 March 1706–7 Norris was promoted to be rear-admiral of the blue, and, with his flag on board the Torbay, accompanied Shovell to the Mediterranean. In command of a detached squadron he forced the passage of the Var, and afterwards took a prominent