John Norton, 5th Baron Grantley

The Right Honourable The Lord Grantley
Born	1 October 1855
Died	5 August 1943 (aged 87) London
Nationality	British
Alma mater	Harrow School University of Dresden
Known for	Father of the House of Lords
Spouse(s)	(1) Katharine Buckner Norton, née McVickar (2) Alice Jones

John Richard Brinsley Norton, 5th Baron Grantley, FSA, FRNS (1 October 1855 – 5 August 1943) was a British peer and numismatist.

Early life

Norton was born in Florence, Italy, the son of Thomas Norton, 4th Baron Grantley and his wife, Maria, née Federigo, and a grandson of Caroline Norton, the writer, and was educated at Harrow School and the University of Dresden. He inherited his father's title in 1877 and was sometime a captain in the Middlesex Yeomanry.

Estates

Grantley was a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, the Royal Numismatic Society and the British Numismatic Society.^[1] He assembled a large collection of coins and also grew orchids. His country seats were Weeke Manor in Winchester and Markenfield Hall in Ripon. He also owned Elton Manor in Nottinghamshire for a time, but seems hardly to have lived there.^[2] He purchased the Red Rice estate in 1913.

Family

In 1879, Grantley married Katharine Buckner Norton, née McVickar (died 1897), the former wife of his cousin, Charles Grantley Campbell Norton. She was the daughter of Commodore William Henry McVickar, US Navy, of New York, USA. He married secondly, in 1899, Alice Jones (died 1942), the illegitimate daughter of Thomas Heron Jones, 7th Viscount Ranelagh. By his first wife, he had six children.

• Hon [unnamed] Norton (b. and dvp. 25 Jan 1889)
• Hon Richard Henry Brinsley Norton, later 6th Baron Grantley
• Hon Joan Mary Conyers Norton (b. 10 Nov 1879; d. 22 Jul 1942), mar. 11 Feb 1903 Edmund Henry Bevan JP, of Hilston Park, co. Monmouth (d. 3 Nov 1945), son of Thomas Bevan DL, of Stone Park, Greenhithe, and had issue
• Hon Eleanour Trehane Norton (b. 18 Jul 1881; d. 16 Mar 1951)
• Hon Winifred Chapple Norton (b. 18 Jul 1881; d. 11 Jul 1914), mar. 26 Jun 1907 William Galbraith Tennant, 1st son of John Tennant, of The Boltons, London, and had issue
• Hon Katharine Edith Carlotta Norton (b. 18 Dec 1883; d. 9 Feb 1961)

In 1930 he became Father of the House of Lords on the death of Viscount Hereford. On his death in a London nursing home in 1943, his titles passed to his only surviving son The Hon. Richard Henry Brinsley Norton.

Arms

Arms of John Norton, 5th Baron Grantley

Coronet A Coronet of a Baron Crest A Moor's Head affrontée couped at the shoulders wreathed round the temples with Laurel proper and around the neck a Torse Argent and Azure Escutcheon Azure a Maunch Ermine surmounted by a Bend Gules Supporters Dexter: a Lion; Sinister: a Griffin, both Argent and ducally gorged Or and pendent from the coronets by a Ribbon Gules a Shield of the Arms of Norton Motto Avi Numerantur Avorum (I follow a long line of ancestry)

Sources

• Obituary – The Times, 6 August 1943

1. "Lord Grantley - Obituary" (PDF). London: The British Numismatic Society. Retrieved 2014-05-15.
2. Lord Grantley: Silver Spoon: being extracts from the random reminiscences of Lord Grantley (London: Hutchinson, 1954), p. 17.