Surname Saturday ~ NORTON of Ipswich

NORTON

I have several NORTON ancestors.  There is a Nicholas Norton (abt. 1610 – 1690) who settled at Edgartown, Massachusetts on the island of Martha’s Vineyard.  (see this link http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2013/12/surname-saturday-norton-of-marthas.html )    There is also a George Norton ( abt 1610 – 1659) who settled in Gloucester, Wenham and Salem, too.

This is a post about William Norton (1610 – 1694) who arrived in New England aboard the ship Hopewell on 29 August 1635.  William Norton settled in Ipswich, Massachusetts.  There was a John Norton, who was a minister in Ipswich and Boston, and many genealogists including Savage and Pope thought they were brothers.  Robert Charles Anderson of the Great Migration series does not agree and states in The Great Migration, Volume V, page 282 “Further research in the English records of this family should be undertaken with a view to resolving this problem.”

 There is an article in The American Genealogist, Volume 16, pages 101 - 115 “George Norton of Salem, Massachusetts”, that attempts of connect George Norton with John and William as one big family. This article was written so long ago (1939) that it is a bit outdated, but it does lay out the English origins of the Norton family.  There are earlier articles about the Nortons in some NEHGS Register journals from 1859 and 1874.  It appears that no new research has been published recently on the Nortons.

William Norton married Lucy Downing, the daughter of Emmanuel Downing, and niece of the Governor of Massachusetts, John Winthrop (1588 – 1649).  He was referred to as “Mr.” in documents, and was a wealthy merchant in Ipswich.   They had five children, and the youngest was born six years later than his closest brother, and so was named “Bonus Norton”.   This is a name that always makes me smile.

Bonus lived in Ipswich and married Mary Goodhue.  He later removed to Hingham, Massachusetts and then to Hampton, New Hampshire where he ran a tavern from 1695 to about 1700.  He is buried in the Quaker burial ground in Seabrook, New Hampshire. I have no evidence he was a Quaker, and his wife had been admitted to the First Church at Hampton. 

William Norton and Lucy Downing were ancestors of both President John Adams and John Quincy Adams, through Bonus’s brother,  Reverend John Norton of Hingham, Massachusetts.

My Norton genealogy:

Generation 1: William Norton, born about 1610 and died 30 April 1694 in Ipswich, Massachusetts.  He married Lucy Downing, the daughter of Emmanuel Downing and Lucy Winthrop.  She was born about 1625 in Salem and died 2 May 1697 in Ipswich.  They had five children.

Generation 2: Bonus Norton, born about 1657 in Ipswich, died on 30 April 1719 in Hampton, New Hampshire; married Mary Goodhue, daughter of Joseph Goodhue and Sarah Whipple.  She was born about 1664 in Ipswich, and died after her husband (she was administratrix of his will).  They had eight children.

Generation 3:  Elizabeth Norton, born 31 March 1703 in Hampton, died 25 March 1759 in Hampton Falls, New Hampshire; married on 20 July 1732 in Hampton to Benjamin Swett, son of Joseph Swett and Sarah Andrews.  He was born 2 May 1710 in Hampton and died 6 June 1762 in Hampton Falls.  Elizabeth and Benjamin had four children.  Elizabeth was previously married to Thomas Jenness and had two children.

Generation 4:   Elizabeth Swett m. David Batchelder

Generation 5:   Elisha Batchelder m.  Sarah Lane

Generation 6:  Jonathan Batchelder m. Nancy Thompson

Generation 7:  George E. Batchelder m.  Abigail M. Locke

Generation 8:  George E. Batchelder m. Mary Katharine Emerson

Generation 9:  Carrie Maud Batchelder m. Joseph Elmer Allen

Generation 10: Stanley Elmer Allen m. Gertrude Matilda Hitchings (my grandparents)

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The URL for this post is

http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/08/surname-saturday-norton-of-ipswich.html

Copyright © 2014, Heather Wilkinson Rojo