Commons 1386-1421

It is unlikely that he was the same Richard Norton as he who was MP for Worcester six times between 1368 and 1385 and bailiff in 1377-8; although certain evidence suggests that this might have been the case. At an inquest in 1412 concerning the outlawry in 1363-4 of one Richard Eliot, the jury gave evidence that Eliot had owned ‘Shirnakescroft’ in Northwick near Worcester, the profits from which Richard Norton had taken ever since the outlawry. Norton claimed in Chancery four years later that as kinsman to Eliot’s father (namely, son of Margery, ‘sister’ to William Norton† of Worcester), he was heir to the property. It would appear from this that there was only one Richard Norton of Worcester, but as the career of the MP of 1368-85 apparently ended well before the close of the century, we have assumed that the MP of 1414 was a younger kinsman. CFR, xiii. 259; CIMisc. vii. 437; CPR, 1416-22; pp. 36-37; Worcester Chs. (Worcs. Hist. Soc. 1909), 192-3.