Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 41.djvu/215

 amiable man, was a great personal friend of the Duke of York. He sat for Guildford in the parliaments of 1784–90, 1796, 1802, 1806, 1807–12, and took an active interest in all matters relating to Surrey, where the Grantley estates are chiefly situate. His last regiment, the 56th (West Essex) foot, was raised to three strong battalions towards the close of the French war, chiefly by recruits from Surrey. He died at the family seat, Wonersh, on 19 March 1818, aged 72. 

NORTON, CHRISTIAN (fl. 1740–1760), engraver, studied painting in Paris under François Boucher, and on turning his hand to engraving, which he studied under Pierre Charles Canot [q. v.], he engraved some of Boucher's paintings. He would appear to have accompanied Canot to England, where he engraved some landscapes after Jean Pillement, ‘The Tempest’ after W. van de Velde, ‘A Calm’ after J. van Goyen, &c. He does not appear to have been connected with George Norton, a student at the academy in St. Martin's Lane, who in 1760 gained a premium from the Society of Arts. 

NORTON, FLETCHER, first (1716–1789), eldest son of Thomas Norton of Grantley, near Ripon, Yorkshire, by his wife Elizabeth, daughter of William Serjeantson of Hanlith in Craven, Yorkshire, was born at Grantley on 23 June 1716. Richard Norton (1488?–1588) was his ancestor. He was admitted a member of the Middle Temple on 14 Nov. 1734, and was called to the bar on 6 July 1739. Though Norton is said to have gone for many years without a brief, he ultimately obtained a very large and lucrative practice, and was for many years leader of the northern circuit, and had the principal business in the court of king's bench. In 1754 he became a king's counsel, was elected a bencher of his inn (3 May 1754), and subsequently became attorney-general for the county palatine of Lancaster. At the general election in May 1754 Norton unsuccessfully contested the borough of Appleby. The election, however, was declared void (Journals of the House of Commons, xxvii. 444), and at the fresh election in March 1756 he was returned to the House of Commons for that borough. He was elected one of the members for Wigan in the parliament of 1761, and was appointed solicitor-general on 25 Jan. 1762, being knighted on the same day. He was created a D.C.L. of Oxford University on 20 Oct. 1762. In Michaelmas term 1763 Norton, as solicitor-general (the office of attorney-general being then vacant), exhibited informations against Wilkes for publishing No. 45 of the ‘North Briton’ and the ‘Essay on Woman’ (, State Trials, 1813, xix. 1075, 1382). During one of the debates on the proceedings against Wilkes, Norton ‘indecently quoted a prosecution of perjury’ against Sir John Rushout, who explained that the prosecution had been instigated by Norton himself for an election purpose, and concluded by saying, ‘It was all owing to that honest gentleman! I hope I do not call him out of his name!’ (, Memoirs of the Reign of George III, i. 326–7). On 16 Dec. 1763 Norton became attorney-general. In the debate on the resolution declaring the illegality of general warrants in February 1764, Norton is reported to have said: ‘if I was a judge I should pay no more regard to this resolution than to that of a drunken porter’ (ib. i. 374–5; see also Parl. Hist. xv. 1403). For this he was severely rebuked in ‘A Letter from Albemarle Street to the Cocoa Tree [Club] on some late Transactions,’ London, 1764, 4to, the authorship of which has been attributed to Lord Temple. Upon the death of Sir Thomas Clarke in November 1764, Norton appears to have been named his successor at the rolls, but the appointment was objected to by Lord-chancellor Northington, and Norton remained attorney-general (, Memoirs of George III, ii. 36–37).

He took part in the prosecution of William, fourth lord Byron, for the murder of William Chaworth, before the House of Lords in April 1765 (, State Trials, xix. 1183), and was one of the counsel for the appellant in the famous Douglas cause in 1769 (, Scotch Appeal Cases, ii. 178). He was dismissed from the post of attorney-general on the formation of the Rockingham administration in July 1765. During the debate on the petition against the Stamp Act in January 1766, Norton accused Pitt of sounding the trumpet to rebellion, and declared: ‘he has chilled my blood at the idea.’ To which Pitt replied: ‘The gentleman says I have chilled his blood; I shall be glad to meet him in any place with the same opinions, when his blood is warmer’ (, Memoirs of the Reign of George III, ii. 271–2). At the general election in March 1768 Norton was returned for the borough of Guildford, which he continued to represent until his elevation to the peerage. On 1 Feb. 1769 he defended Lord