John Norton (fl. 1616–1645)

NORTON (JOHN), printer in London, 1621–45. This is probably the John Norton who took up his freedom on July 8th, 1616. [Arber, iii. 684.] There were three stationers of this name at work in London during the first quarter of the 17th century, (1) John Norton, cousin of William Norton, and printer of Sir H. Saville's Chrysostom, who died in 1612; (2) John Norton, son of Mark Norton, citizen and grocer of London, apprentice to John Atkinson in 1598 and out of his time in 1605, of whom no more is heard, and (3) the subject of the present article, whose first book entry occurs in the registers on September 18th, 1621. [Arber, iv. 59.] He was in partnership with John Okes, who had succeeded to the business originally established by Thomas Judson in 1586, and in the hands successively of John Harrison the Younger, George and Lionel Snowden, and Nicholas Okes. The position of this printing house is unknown. [Arber, iii. 669 et seq.; Library, April, 1906, pp. 165, 166.] John Norton was for a time associated with Augustine Mathewes, who died in 1625.