Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/402

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. vn. APRIL 27, 1907.

the date of whose birth is wanting, as are details of the elder Bunyan's life and where- abouts at the time. As the latter's marriage took place about Christmas, 1648, his son's baptism may well have occurred about the date given, however. Can the entry refer to this son ?

" John Bunny on," of Luton, Beds, bachelor, aged about twenty-four, licensed to marry at St. Gregory's, or St. Mar- garet's, Lothbury, one Anne Carter, of Barnet, Herts, spinster, aged eighteen, with the consent of her father, Andrew C., of B., innholder, 5 May, 1663. This J. B. was apparently unable to write, as he subscribes the record with a X.

The difference in the spelling of Bunyan is of course no bar to a connexion, as accord- ing to Canon Venables in the ' D.N.B.,' the " immortal tinker's " name is found spelt thirty-four ways in all.

2. What was the exact degree of relation- ship between the author of ' Paradise Lost ' and William Blackborough, or Blackborrow, of St. Martin's-le-Grand, in whose house the poet's reconciliation with his girl-wife, Mary Powell, took place in 1645 ? All writers (including Masson) agree in styling Blackborough " Milton's kinsman," but none of them say what the relationship was. Can any correspondent oblige ?

WILLIAM MCMURRAY.

"IDLE DICK NORTON."

(10 S. vii. 168.)

COL. PVICHABD NORTON belonged to the Southwick branch of the Norton family of Hampshire. MRS. SUCKLING will find a pedigree of this family in Berry's ' Hamp- shire Genealogies,' but it is based on the Visitation of 1622, and gives no information subsequent to that date. The following notes relating to the Southwick branch will perhaps furnish MRS. SUCKLING with the information she desires, and at the same tune be useful to other readers of ' N. & Q.'

Sir Daniel Norton (younger son of Sir Richard Norton d. 1592 of Rotherfield, by his second wife Catherine Kingsmill) married Honor (b. 1589, d. 1651), eldest daughter and coheiress of John White, of Southwick (see 10 S. vi. 83). Col. Richard Norton was the second, but eldest surviving, son of this marriage. He was born in 1614 ; entered Brasenose College, Oxford, 1631 ; student of Gray's Inn, 1634 ; and inherited

Southwick, on the death of his father, in 1636. Like his mother, he was a zealous partisan of the Parliament in the early part of the civil wars, and Godwin in his ' Civil War in Hampshire ' gives much interesting information concerning him. As a colonel, at the head of his famous corps of " Hamble- don Boys " he captured Southsea Castle in August, 1642, and took a prominent part in the siege of Portsmouth ; during the next few months he appears to have had numer- ous successful skirmishes with Cavaliers in various parts of the county, but suffered a severe repulse in July, 1643, in an attack on Basing House. He was in command of the force at Romsey in December of that year, when his brother " Captain Lieutenant Norton " was taken prisoner by Major Murford (not Mitford). In January, 1644, he captured and garrisoned Warblington Castle, although shortly after his departure it was retaken by Lord Hopton. In March Col. Norton is found taking part in the great fight at Cheriton, when the Royalists were utterly defeated ; " being well acquainted with every lane in the neighbourhood," hs " brought up his renowned troop of Hamble- don Boys and charged the Cavaliers in the rear, thus not a little contributing to the victory." In the following month he was acting as Maj or-General of Horse under Sir William Waller, and for some months afterwards was actively engaged in the memorable siege of Basing House.

Col. Norton was Governor of Southampton from November, 1643, to April, 1644. On 10 May, 1645, he was appointed Governor of Portsmouth and Captain of Southsea Castle, and appears to have held these posts for about three years. He was M.P. for co. Southampton from November, 1645, till secluded in 1648 ;* was again returned for the county in 1653, and in the same year elected a member of the Council of State.

Immediately upon the Restoration he was once more appointed Governor of Portsmouth, being superseded by the Duke of York in May, 1661. The same month he was elected M.P. for Portsmouth he had been a burgess of the corporation for over twenty years and he continued to represent the borough in Parliament until shortly before his death in June, 1691.

Clarendon speaks of him as " a man of spirit," and refers to " the known courage of Norton." Carlyle says he was " given

Col. Thomas Pride, when 47 members were seized and imprisoned, and 96 excluded from the House.
 * On 6 Dec., 1648, the House was "purged" by