Thomas Norton

Thomas Norton (1532 – 10 March 1584) was an English lawyer, politician, writer of verse.

Norton was born in London and was educated at Cambridge, and early became a secretary to the Protector Somerset. In 1555 he was admitted a student at the Inner Temple, and married Margery Cranmer, the daughter of Archbishop Thomas Cranmer. Margery died before 1568 with no issue. In 1568, Thomas was married to Alice, the daughter of Archdeacon Edmund Cranmer, who was the brother of the Archbishop.

In 1562 Norton, who had served in an earlier parliament as the representative of Gatton, became M.P. for Berwick, and entered active into politics. He became the unofficial leader of a group of about fifty members of the House of Commons, which G. R. Elton saw as the first semi-official opposition in Parliament. In religion he was inspired by the sentiments of his father-in-law, and was in possession of Cranmer's manuscript code of ecclesiastical law; this he permitted John Foxe to publish in 1571. He went to Rome on legal business, in 1579, and from 1580 to 1583 he frequently visited the Channel Islands as a commissioner to inquire into the status of these possessions.

Norton was the first Remembrancer of the City of London, holding the office from 1570 until his death in 1584.

Norton's Calvinism grew with years, and towards the end of his career he became a fanatic. Norton held several interrogation sessions in the Tower of London using torture instruments such as the rack. His punishment of the Catholics, as their official censor from 1581 onwards, led to his being nicknamed "Rackmaster-General" and "Rackmaster Norton."

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