Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Norton, Richard (d.1420)
NORTON, RICHARD (d. 1420), chief justice of the court of common pleas, was son of Adam Norton, whose original name was Conyers, and who adopted the name of Norton on marrying the heiress of that family (Surtees, Durham, vol. i. p. clxi). He appears as an advocate in 1399, and was probably a serjeant-at-law before 1403. On 4 June 1405 he was included in the commission appointed for the trial of all concerned in Archbishop Scrope's rebellion; his name was, however, omitted from the fresh commission appointed two days later (Wylie, Hist. Henry IV, ii. 230–1). In 1406 he appears as a justice of assize for the county palatine of Durham (Surtees, vol. i. p. lvii). In 1408 he occurs as one of the king's serjeants. Immediately after the accession of Henry V Norton appears as one of the justices of the court of common pleas, and on 26 June 1413 was appointed chief justice (Cal. Pat. Rolls, John to Edw. IV, pp. 260, 261). From November 1414 to December 1420 he appears regularly as a trier of petitions in parliament (Rolls of Parliament, iv. 35 a–123 b). He died on 20 Dec. 1420. Norton married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Tempest of Studley, by whom he had several sons, the pedigree of whose descendants is given in Surtees's ‘History of Durham,’ vol. i. p. clx–clxi.
[Proceedings of Privy Council, i. 203, iii. 33; Foss's Judges of England, iv. 207–8; other authorities quoted.]