Walter Norton is of particular interest in the medical history of Newmarket, because he was the main / longest standing member of the fascinating Edwards-Norton-Taylor-Kendall-Thomas-Bullen practice chain. In fact he appears to have had the longest Newmarket medical career to date, probably never to be surpassed – 58 years (although Clement Gray later and likely Robert Greene earlier were close contenders).
Walter Norton was probably born in 1765, since at his death in November 1837 he was described as 72 years of age, but he was baptised in 1766, at Stetchworth, a village just south of Newmarket. Tax was paid regarding his apprenticeship to John Edwards of Newmarket in 1779 (see image below), when he would have been about 14 years of age, the normal age to start such an apprenticeship. This was apparently for 7 years, so likely ending in 1786.
A record of tax being paid regarding Walter Norton’s apprenticeship to John Edwards in 1779 – note date top left, Walter Norton bottom right (see below or click image for source and acknowledgements etc., ref. Image 1).
He presumably continued working in Newmarket after ‘qualifying’ (no actual examination was required at that stage – see below), since in 1800 he married Mary (Molly) Stevens at All Saints’ church Newmarket, when he would have been about 35 years of age. So likely he continued working in the Edwards’ practice; he was not referred to as an independent practitioner in Newmarket whilst the two John Edwards (father and son) were alive. Both died in the 1790s, so Walter Norton likely continued their practice after that. He’s recorded in 1802 on the Cambridgeshire electoral roll for Newmarket (i.e. the All Saints’ side of town, which the Edwards were primarily associated with, and the parish they covered in 1788 at least – see the page on the John Edwards for details).
Charles Edwards’ 1823 examination records at the Society of Apothecaries, showing his apprenticeship to Walter Norton (see below or click image for source and acknowledgements etc., ref. Image 2).
In 1803 Walter Norton is recorded taking on an apprentice of his own, Thomas LeBass, who continued as his assistant but sadly died in 1815. He took on another apprentice in 1817, Charles Edwards, who also died young in 1826 (he was not a son of either of the John Edwards). It’s of note that unlike Thomas LeBass, this second apprentice was required to be licensed by the Society of Apothecaries in London to practice (compulsory from 1815, and requiring an examination – see The history of medical treatments, training, qualifications and regulation). Walter Norton is mentioned as his trainer on the 1823 examination record (see image on the right).
By 1823 it appears that Walter Norton was possibly living in Willoughby House (where the Post Office is now) – certainly the Nortons owned that house later – see below. Willoughby House was on the south (i.e. Cambridgeshire, All Saints) side of the High Street, so he’d possibly lived there since 1802 or even earlier (see the pages on Grosvenor House and Cardigan Lodge for pictures that capture this house in the background, and the page on Cardigan Lodge for it marked on a plan too). Walter Norton also owned other property in and around Newmarket, including opposite Willoughby House, part of the plot that’s now occupied by the old Rustons and Lloyds solicitors’ building.
Also by 1823 Walter Norton had formed what seems to have been an unusual for the time triple partnerships with James Taylor and Henry Kendall. The three are first mentioned together in 1823, but the earliest mention of James Taylor in Newmarket is from 1821. Henry Kendall had trained in Spittlefields (London), qualifying in 1819, so it seems likely this partnership formed in the early 1820s, with Walter Norton as the senior partner. In 1830 a further apprentice, Thomas Golding Cocke, was examined at the Society of Apothecaries, and all three partners are listed on the examination records at that time (see the page on the Edwards-Norton-Taylor-Kendall-Thomas-Bullen practice chain for an image of this).
Sadly James Taylor and Henry Kendall both died quite young too, in 1833 and 1835 respectively, after which Walter Norton formed a partnership with John Thomas. This pairing is first mentioned in 1836, when they were elected as medical officers to the newly formed Newmarket Union, the poor law institution that ran the workhouse and administered health and social care provision for the poor. Norton and Thomas covered district 2, which was one of seven districts, the exact geographic details of which are not given in the Newmarket Union records. However, later the same year this was reduced to five districts ‘having regard to the residence of the Medical Officers’, and Norton and Thomas were allocated the Cheveley district (number 3), which comprised Newmarket All Saints, Cheveley, Woodditton, Kirtling, Stetchworth, Dullingham, Borough Green, Brinkley and Westley Waterless. These villages form a block south of Newmarket on the All Saints’ side of town, where Willoughby House is. It’s also of note that this district includes Walter Norton’s village of birth, Stetchworth. The location of John Thomas’ residence is not known. However, in 1837 the districts were rearranged again, this time Norton and Thomas being allocated Newmarket St Mary’s parish, Exning, Landwade, Burwell and Reach (and named district 2), a block of parishes running north-west from Newmarket, and they became surgeons to the newly built workhouse on the road to Exning (later to become Newmarket Hospital, still standing now, but used as residential accommodation – see images on the pages about the Newmarket Union and Newmarket Hospital).
It’s of interest that in 1837 Norton and Thomas were elected as district registrars as well, but this decision was overturned on the basis that the post could be held by only one person, so Thomas alone was appointed. However, John Thomas died that same year and was replaced by another medic, Mark Bullen. Walter Norton then died less than a month after John Thomas (not of the same cause) and Mark Bullen took over their district 2 of the Newmarket Union as well (although Richard Faircloth became surgeon to the workhouse). We know that Richard Faircloth’s was a separate practice, but these takeovers are a hint that Mark Bullen continued the Norton and Thomas practice, which is confirmed by a reference from a couple of years later when on the death of Mark Bullen he was referred to as ‘of the firm Norton and Bullen’. It’s of note that the practice was still referred to as relating to Walter Norton two years after his death, likely reflecting the significance of his name in Newmarket after a career spanning more than half a century. Interestingly, the death certificates of both John Thomas and Walter Norton feature a Robert McPherson, described as a surgeon of Newmarket All Saints. He was an assistant in one of the practices according to an 1839 entry in the Newmarket Union minutes, but it’s not known with which practice (presumably he wasn’t part of their practice, otherwise he wouldn’t have been described as an assistant after Mark Bullen’s death). There doesn’t appear to be a Robert McPherson on the 1841 census of Newmarket and nothing further is know about him at this stage.
Walter and Molly Norton don’t appear to have had any children. In his is will of 1823 he mentions only sisters and nieces. Interestingly however, one niece appears to have married Henry Kendall. The will leaves the house in which he was living to his niece Mary Travis and the following year, in 1824, Henry Kendall married a Mary Travis at Newmarket All Saints. Then the 1841 census shows Molly Norton in Willoughby House with Ellen and Jessie Kendall, children of the late Henry Kendall and his widow Mary (see image below). Molly Norton left Willoughby House to Mary Kendall in her will of 1844, apparently replicating her late husband’s wishes, which is why it’s thought that they had lived there since 1823 at least as mentioned above.
Molly Norton as a widow living by independent means ‘Ind’ with two of the late Henry Kendall’s children – Ellen & Jessie (and two female servants ‘F.S.’) on the 1841 census – the sequence of properties and other evidence in the references below suggests that this was Willoughby House on the High Street (see below or click image for source and acknowledgements etc., ref. Image 3).
Molly Norton herself died in 1846, described as ‘relict of the late Dr. Norton’. This is the only known instance of him being given the title Dr. It was starting to become more common at this time to call medics ‘Dr’ whether they had an MD degree or not. Otherwise he was described as Mr, and as was customary for the time ‘surgeon’ or ‘surgeon and apothecary’, the forerunners of modern GPs (again see The history of medical treatment, training, qualifications and regulation).
Walter Norton’s long career, aside from those he worked with, would have overlapped with that of William Sandiver 2 and Thomas Searancke 2 early on. By the early 19th century William Sandiver 2 had been replaced by Woodward Mudd followed by Robert James Peck, who were the main rival practice. Towards the end of his career Richard Faircloth and Robert Fyson established new apparently independent practices in town as well, but he probably didn’t live to see Frederick Page do the same (although might have known him from earlier). Walter Norton would also have been familiar with William Cooke, James Hustler, and Thomas Delanney, mentioned on the Faint traces page, and possibly also Elijah Robinson and Richard Woodthorpe mentioned on that page too.
Image 1: The 1841 census, reference HO/107/65/5 (cropped); image ©, reproduced with kind permission of The National Archives.
Image 2: From The Society of Apothecaries’ Court of Examiners Candidates’ Qualification Entry Book 1823-1826, reference MS8241/3 (cropped); image ©, reproduced with kind permission of The Society of Apothecaries Archives, London.
Image 3: 1779 apprenticeship tax records, reference IR1/61 (cropped); image ©, reproduced with kind permission of The National Archives.
Note: see comments regarding images and copyright © etc. on the Usage &c. page as well.
1766, 5th October: Walter son of Walter and Mary Norton baptised, Stetchworth, Cambridgeshire. Reference: An indexed transcription of the parish registers of Stetchworth. Cambridgeshire Family History Society; 2008, (Cambridgeshire County Record Office [called Cambridgeshire Archives], Cambridge – subsequently relocated to Ely).
1779, 18th August: Tax paid regarding Walter Norton’s apprenticeship to Jno Edwards of Newmarket, surgeon. Reference: Reference: Online image of apprenticeship tax records held at The National Archives, ancestry.co.uk (accessed 25th July 2015). [Note: see above for an image also], [Note also, Wallis and Wallis below date this as 23rd September with (7/£80) in brackets, apparently obtaining similar information from an alternative source of which I am not aware. Suffolk Medical Biographies (also below) follows Wallis and Wallis, interpreting the bracketed comment as referring to a 7 year apprenticeship.]
1800, 29th May: Walter Norton of Newmarket All Saints’ (bachelor) married Mary Stevens of Woodditton (spinster) by licence, All Saints’ church, Newmarket. Reference: Microfiche of Newmarket All Saints’ parish register (fiche 6), (Suffolk County Record Office, Bury St Edmunds). [Note: Mary signed her name ‘Molly Stevens’ and she was later referred to as Molly Norton; Molly is a variant name that can be used for Mary.]
1802: Walter Norton on the electoral roll for Newmarket. Reference: ‘The poll for the election of a representative for the county of Cambridge on Wednesday the 5th. Thursday the 6th. Friday the 7th. Saturday the 8th. and Monday the 10th. of May, 1802’. Cambridge: B. Fowler; 1802.
1803, 16th July: Tax paid regarding Thos Lebass’ apprenticeship to Walter Norton, Newmarket, ‘Co of Cambridge’, ‘Surgeon &c’. Reference: Online image of apprenticeship tax records held at The National Archives, ancestry.co.uk (accessed 27th October 2015). [Note: Wallis and Wallis below date this as 1st June with (7/£36) in brackets, apparently obtaining similar information from an alternative source of which I am not aware. Suffolk Medical Biographies did not have Lebass at the time of writing.]
1813, April: ‘Norton, Newmarket’, listed under ‘Subscriptions received from the Country Practitioners who are of the Community of Associated Apothecaries and Surgeon-Apothecaries of England and Wales’ (subscribing to The Medial and Physical Journal). Reference: The Medical and Physical Journal 1813; 4 of Vol. XXIX, No. 170. [Note: see comments regarding Wallis and Wallis below.]
1815, 20th December: Under deaths, ‘Wednesday last, Mr. Le Bas, formerly an apprentice and late an assistant to Mr. Norton, surgeon, of Newmarket: had life been spared him, his ability and inclination would have led him to the attainment of the first degree of eminence in his profession, aided by the extensive practice in the situa-tion offered him. He was universally kind to those who were unfortunately obliged to require his attendance, in manners gentle and obliging, and in his conduct highly respectable.’ Reference: Cambridge Chronicle and Journal. Friday Dec 22 1815: 3.
1819, 9th December: ‘Decr. 9th – 1819 Mr. Henry Kendall of full age – CANDIDATE for a CERTIFICATE to practise as an APOTHECARY in [blank] An APPRENTICE to Mr. George Thomas Kent of Brick Lane, Spittlefield APOTHECARY for 7 Years. EVIDENCE of APPRENTICESHIP. Indenture TESTIMONIAL of MORAL CHARACTER. Dr Duncan Robertson LECTURES. 3 COURSES on ANATOMY and PHYSIOLOGY. J [?] Brooks.- 3 – THEORY and PRACTICE of MEDICINE. Dr Pearson 3 – CHEMISTRY. W F Bragde [?] [and bracketed with Dr Pearson above] 1 – MATERIA MEDICA. Dr Gregory HOSPITAL ATTENDANCE. 6 MONTHS at the St Georges & St James’s Disps [illegible – possibly examiner’s signature out of place] EXAMINED by Mr. [blank]’. Reference: Court of Examiners Candidates’ Qualification Entry Book, The Society of Apothecaries Archives, Apothecaries’ Hall, Black Friars Lane, London EC4V 6EJ. [Note: see the page on Henry Kendall for an image of this.]
1821: Walter Norton shown occupying property number 93 in the High Street on the Newmarket St Mary’s 1821 enclosure map, a property that no longer exists, but appears to have been immediately west of the White Hart, essentially on the site of the east end of Rustons & Lloyd solicitors’ office of today. Reference: FL610/1/6, (Suffolk County Record Office, Bury St Edmunds).
1823: ‘Norton, Taylor & Kendall’ listed under ‘surgeons and apothecaries’ in Newmarket, Cambridgeshire. Reference: Pigot and Co.’s London & provincial new commercial directory, for 1823-4. London: J. Pigot; 1823, pg 172ff. [Note: Peck Robert James is listed separately.]
1823, 21st July: The will of ‘Walter Norton of the parish of All Saints Newmarket in the county of – Cambridge surgeon’ (probate 10th January 1838, to ‘Molly Norton widow the relict’). Reference: The National Archives, Records of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, PROB 11/1889. [Note: his wife Molly was left most of his estate, including property in Woodditton. However, he left his niece Mary Travis ‘who now lives with me’ the ‘premises wherein I at present reside… which I purchased of the late Thomas Panton’. Given the 1841 census below, and Molly Norton’s 1844 will, it would appear that this was Willoughby House, although oddly an abstract of title from 1862 appears to show it passing from Thomas Panton’s widow to William Crockford in 1810; interestingly, the next paragraph mentions what appears to be a separate property sold by Thomas Panton junior to Walter Norton, so it’s not clear at what stage the Nortons acquired Willoughby House and whether the property referred to by Walter Norton in 1823 was something else. Reference: HB517/A/51, ‘Abstract of the Title of Mr William Parr Isaacson to an Estate at Newmarket late Crockfords’, (Suffolk County Record Office, Bury St Edmunds).], [Note also, interestingly he mentions four sisters, including ‘Rebecca Travis now the wife of John Travis’ so it seems he had taken on their daughter even though her parents were still alive. A niece Latona (?) Norton Travis is also mentioned.]
1823, 20th November: ‘4 Mr. Charles Edwards 20 Novr. 1823 of full Age Baptised 6 April 1808, CANDIDATE for a CERTIFICATE to practise as an APOTHECARY in [blank] An APPRENTICE to Mr. Walter Norton of Newmarket, Cambridgeshire APOTHECARY for seven Years. INDENTURE DATED 14 January 1817 TESTIMONIAL of MORAL CHARACTER. W Norton LECTURES. 2 COURSES on ANATOMY and PHYSIOLOGY. 2 – THEORY and PRACTICE of MEDICINE. 1 – CHEMISTRY. 1 – MATERIA MEDICA. HOSPITAL ATTENDANCE. 9 MONTHS at London Dispensary as [? ].- EXAMINED by Mr. Wheeler & approved’. Reference: Court of Examiners Candidates’ Qualification Entry Book, The Society of Apothecaries Archives, Apothecaries’ Hall, Black Friars Lane, London EC4V 6EJ. [Note: see image above.]
1824, 23rd February: Henry Kendall of Newmarket All Saints’ (bachelor) married Mary Travis of Newmarket All Saints’ (spinster) by licence, All Saints’ church, Newmarket. Reference: Microfiche of Newmarket All Saints’ parish register (fiche 8), (Suffolk County Record Office, Bury St Edmunds). [Note: W Norton was a witness.]
1826, 24th January: Under deaths, ‘On Tuesday last, at Newmarket, Charles, youngest son of Mr. Edwards, of Dullingham. In his avocation as surgeon and apothecary, he exhibited superior talent, united with tenderness and affection to the objects of his care, and no less respected by those who were his associates. He studied his profession under Messrs. Norton, Taylor, and Kendall.’ Reference: Cambridge Chronicle and Journal. Friday Jan 27 1826: 3.
1830: ‘Norton,Taylor & Kendall, Newmkt’ listed under ‘surgeons & apothecaries’ in ‘Newmarket, &c.’ Cambridgeshire. Reference: Pigot and Co.’s national commercial directory. London & Manchester: J. Pigot & Co.; 1830. [Note: see the page on the Edwards–Norton–Taylor–Kendall–Thomas–Bullen practice chain for an image of this.], [Note also, Peck Robert James, Newmarket and Handcock Charles, Burwell are listed separately.]
1830, 30th December: ‘Decr. 30th 182 [2 overwritten 30] 24 MR. Thomas Golding Cocke – of full Age CANDIDATE for a CERTIFICATE to practise as an APOTHECARY in [blank] An APPRENTICE to Mr. Walter Norton James Taylor Hry Kendall of Newmarket APOTHECARY for five Years. INDENTURE DATED 3 July 1823 TESTIMONIAL of MORAL CHARACTER. Norton [& Co?] EVIDENCE of AGE. Baptised 19 Feb 1807 LECTURES. 2 COURSES on CHEMISTRY. [Tarads?] 2 – MATERIA MEDICA. Macleod 2 – ANATOMY and PHYSIOLOGY. 2 – Of ANATOMICAL DEMONSTRATIONS [bracketed together] Hawkins 2 – The PRINCIPLES and PRACTICE of MEDICINE Macleod HOSPITAL ATTENDANCE Number. 1737 12 MONTHS at St Geo & St Js Dispes 23 May 1829 2 COURSES of LECTURES on MIDWIFERY. Ley – of CLINICAL LECTURES. [blank] EXAMINED by Mr. Williams & rejected’. Reference: Court of Examiners Candidates’ Qualification Entry Book, The Society of Apothecaries Archives, Apothecaries’ Hall, Black Friars Lane, London EC4V 6EJ. [Note: see the page on the Edwards–Norton–Taylor–Kendall–Thomas–Bullen practice chain for an image of this.], [Note also, he presented again on 22nd December 1831, was examined by Mr. Ridout and rejected again, but was eventually approved at his third examination by Mr Blatch on 19th July 1832; with these re-examinations the details of apprenticeships and courses etc. are not filled in.]
1833, 5th February: Under deaths, ‘Yesterday se’nnight… Mr. James Taylor, of the firm of Norton, Taylor, and Kendall, surgeons, of Newmarket.’ Reference: The Bury and Norwich Post. Wednesday Feb 13 1833: 2.
1835, 14th December: Under deaths, ‘On Monday, aged 39, Mr. Henry Kendall, of the firm of Norton and Kendall, surgeons, of Newmarket.’ Reference: Huntingdon, Bedford, & Peterborough Gazette. Saturday Dec 19 1835: 2. [Note: The Bury and Norwich Post printed, ‘Mr. Henry Kendall, of the firm of Martin and Kendall, surgeons, of Newmarket’, Martin clearly being a typo for Norton therefore (just in case anyone were to spot this and think that there was a Mr Martin, surgeon, in Newmarket, for which there is no other evidence, and this evidence clearly proves the typo.). Reference: The Bury and Norwich Post. Wednesday Dec 16 1835.]
1836, 11th March: ‘Norton and Thomas of Newmarket Surgeons’ elected as medical officers to District 2 of the newly formed Newmarket Union (there were seven divisions, not defined). Reference: 611/11, Newmarket Union minutes, (Suffolk County Record Office, Bury St Edmunds).
1836, 24th June: ‘Norton & Thomas’ first quarterly payment as Medical Officers for District 2: 6-7-6. Reference: 611/11, Newmarket Union minutes, (Suffolk County Record Office, Bury St Edmunds).
1836, 9th September: The Newmarket Union medical districts redefined and reduced to five from seven ‘having regard to the residence of the Medical Officers’. Walter Norton and John Thomas were allocated District 3, named the Cheveley district, which comprised Newmarket All Saints’, Cheveley, Woodditton, Kirtling, Stetchworth, Dullingham, ‘Boroughgreen’, Brinkley and Westley (waterless). Reference: 611/11, Newmarket Union minutes, (Suffolk County Record Office, Bury St Edmunds).
1836, 21st October: Walter Norton and John Thomas Registrars for District 3, Cheveley District. Reference: 611/11, Newmarket Union minutes, (Suffolk County Record Office, Bury St Edmunds).
1837, 10th March: The Newmarket Union medical districts redefined again, this time from five to six districts. Walter Norton and John Thomas were allocated District 2, which comprised Burwell with ‘the whole Hamlet of Reach’, Exning, Landwade and Newmarket St Mary. Reference: 611/11, Newmarket Union minutes, (Suffolk County Record Office, Bury St Edmunds).
1837, 25th March: ‘Messrs Norton and Thomas were elected Surgeons to the new workhouse’. Reference: 611/11, Newmarket Union minutes, (Suffolk County Record Office, Bury St Edmunds).
1837, 18th April: Walter Norton and John Thomas Registrars for District 1, Newmarket District. Reference: 611/11, Newmarket Union minutes, (Suffolk County Record Office, Bury St Edmunds).
1837, 16th May: ‘The Registrar General having declared the election of Messrs Walter Norton & John Thomas as Registrars of the Newmarket District void the office of Registrar being tenable by only one person Mr John Thomas was elected Registrar for the said District’. Reference: 611/12, Newmarket Union minutes, (Suffolk County Record Office, Bury St Edmunds).
1837, 22nd October: Under deaths, ‘On Sunday se’nnight, very much respected and lamented, Mr. John Thomas, of the firm Norton and Thomas, surgeons, of Newmarket.’ Reference: The Bury and Norwich Post. Wednesday Nov 1 1837: 2.
1837, 22nd October: Death certificate of John Thomas, male, aged 28, surgeon, cause of death apoplexy, informant Robert McPherson surgeon Newmarket All Saints’ in attendance during last illness, registered 25th October 1837, registrar Richard Faircloth. Reference: Certified copy of an entry of death, given at the General Register Office, 16th November 2015.
1837, 14th November: ‘Mr Mark Edwin Bullen was elected registrar for the Newmarket District’. Reference: 611/12, Newmarket Union minutes, (Suffolk County Record Office, Bury St Edmunds).
1837, 17th November: Under deaths, ‘On the 17th inst. aged 72, Mr. Walter Norton, the eminent surgeon, at Newmarket.’ Reference: The Bury and Norwich Post. Wednesday Nov 29 1837: 2.
1837, 17th November: Death certificate of Walter Norton, male, aged 72, surgeon, cause of death fever, informant Robert McPherson present at the death, Newmarket All Saints’, registered 25th November 1837, registrar Richard Faircloth. Reference: Certified copy of an entry of death, given at the General Register Office, 13th November 2015.
1837, 21st November: Death of Mr Norton ‘Medical officer of district 2 and surgeon to the workhouse’ noted in the Newmarket Union minutes and that the posts be advertised. Reference: 611/12, Newmarket Union Minutes, (Suffolk County Record Office, Bury St Edmunds).
1837, 21st November: Notice in The Bury and Norwich Post: ‘Newmarket Union. THE BOARD OF GUARDIANS will, at their Weekly Meeting, on the 5th of December next, proceed to the Election of a Medical Officer for District No. 2, comprising the following parishes: Burwell, with the whole Hamlet of Reach Exning Landwade Newmarket St. Mary. Also a Surgeon to the Workhouse, upon the terms upon which the said Offices were respectively held by the late Mr. Norton. Candidates to send their Testimonials to me on or before the 4th of December. WILLIAM PARR ISAACSON, Clerk. Newmarket, 21st November, 1837.’ Reference: The Bury and Norwich Post. Wednesday Nov 29 1837: 1.
1837, 26th November: Walter Norton of All Saints’ parish buried, aged 72. Reference: Microfiche of Newmarket All Saints’ parish register (fiche 9), (Suffolk County Record Office, Bury St Edmunds).
1837, 5th December: ‘Mr Bullen was elected Medical Officer of District No 2’, ‘Mr Richard Faircloth was elected surgeon to the Union House’. Reference: 611/12, Newmarket Union minutes, (Suffolk County Record Office, Bury St Edmunds).
1839, 1st January: Under deaths, ‘On the 1st inst., after a long and painful illness. Mr. Bullen, surgeon, of Newmarket, of the firm Norton and Bullen.’ Reference: The Bury and Norwich Post. Wednesday Jan 9 1839: 2. [Note: see the page on Mark Edwin Bullen for an image of this.]
1839, 15th January: ‘Mr Robert MacPherson of Newmarket Saint Mary assistant surgeon was elected Registrar of the Newmarket District in the room of the late Mr Bullen’. Reference: 611/12, Newmarket Union minutes, (Suffolk County Record Office, Bury St Edmunds).
1841, 7th June: Coming east along the All Saints’ (south) side of the High Street, immeditately past Crockford’s Yard, is a household with Molly Norton aged 55, together with Ellen Kendall aged 15, Jesie Kendall aged 8, and three servants. Interestingly, the next residence west is that of Richard Faircloth (see 1844 below also). Reference: The National Archives, 1841 census. [Note: this is the right position for Willoughby House, mentioned in Molly Norton’s 1844 will – see below.], [Note also, see image above.]
1844, 26th August: The will of ‘Molly Norton of Newmarket All Saints… widow… I give and devise the mansion in which I now reside called Willoughby House… unto Mary Kendall of Newmarket widow… for and during the term of her natural life’ (probate 10th December 1846). Reference: J545/76 (microfilm of wills, volume 15 number 382), (Suffolk County Record Office, Bury St Edmunds). [Note: there were further bequests to Mary Kendall’s children, a cousin in Berkshire, the children of Latona (?) Norton King, late wife of James King of Fulbourn (see Walter Norton’s 1823 will above) and to her friend Richard Faircloth, surgeon, (see 1841 census above) who was also an executor, but a codicil from 25th February 1845 replaced him with someone else.]
1846, 22nd July: Under deaths, ‘On Monday last, Mrs Norton, relict of the late Dr. Norton, of Newmarket.’ Reference: The Cambridge Independent Press. Saturday Jul 25 1846: 3.
1846, 29th July: Molly Norton of All Saints’ parish buried, aged 67, All Saint’s church, Newmarket. Reference: FL609/4/6, Burial register of All Saints’ Newmarket 1813-1854, (Suffolk County Record Office, Bury St Edmunds). [Note: this ought to be on microfiche 10, which was missing at the time of my researching this page, so I was allowed to look at the original register.]
Suffolk Medical Biographies. Profile for Norton, Walter. http://www.suffolkmedicalbiographies.co.uk/Profile.asp?Key=1602 (originally accessed pre October 2013). [Note: see comments regarding this website on the Francis Greene page.], [Note also, this website has a reference to a J C Nunn being his assistant until 1828, something I have not been able to substantiate, yet. Strangely there is not a cross reference on a Nunn J C page mentioning this.]
The research notes of Peter May. Reference: HD1584, (Suffolk County Record Office, Bury St Edmunds).
Wallis PJ, Wallis RV. Eighteeth century medics. [2nd ed.]. Newcastle Upon Tyne: Project for Historical Biobibliography; 1988. [Note: see comments regarding the apprenticeship entries in the dated references above, but also Wallis and Wallis have an entry marked 1765-a1813 subscriber calling him a ‘surgeon, chemist… Newmarket, Cambs’, which perhaps relates to the 1813 Medical and Physical Journal subscription above, in which he is referred to as ‘of the Community of Associated Apothecaries and Surgeon-Apothecaries of England and Wales’, supplemented by some research regarding his date of birth, which was likely 1765.]
Note: For published material referenced on this website see the ‘Acknowledgements for resources of published material’ section on the ‘Usage &c.’ page. The sources used for original unpublished documents are noted after each individual reference. Any census records are referenced directly to The National Archives, since images of these are so ubiquitous on microfilm and as digital images that they almost function like published works. Census records are covered by the ‘Open Government Licence’ as should be other such public records (see the ‘Copyright and related issues’ section on the ‘Usage &c.’ page for which references constitute public records, and any other copyright issues more generally such as fair dealing/use etc.).