Thomas Norris (1765–1852)

Thomas Norris FRAS (14 January 1765 – 15 March 1852) was an English businessman, art collector, natural historian and astronomer, born at Croston in Lancashire. Joining the Bury firm of Peel, Yates and Co. as a book-keeper at the age of twenty, he eventually became a partner and amassed a considerable fortune from its success in the textile and calico-printing businesses.[1] Amongst his partners at the firm was the businessman and politician Sir Robert Peel, whose son, also named Sir Robert Peel, served twice as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Norris was reputedly a regular and welcome visitor at the latter's home in Whitehall Gardens.[1]

Thomas Norris

FRAS
Thomas Norris FRAS
Thomas Norris FRAS, by J. Linnell, 1837
Born(1765-01-14)14 January 1765
Croston, Lancashire, England
Died15 March 1852(1852-03-15) (aged 87)
Burial placeSt Michael and All Angels, Croston, Lancashire, England
Occupation(s)Businessman, art collector, naturalist and astronomer

Upon his retirement to Howick House, Penwortham, in 1821, Norris purchased[2] one half of the Lordship of Croston, and dedicated the remainder of his life to artistic and scientific pursuits. In addition to his acquisition of a valuable collection of old master paintings and rare coins, his interest in natural history was reflected by the compilation of an extensive collection of minerals, shells and insects.[1] He was a founder member[3] of the Entomological Society of London (in 1833) and a Fellow of the Astronomical Society of London as early as 1825,[4] continuing as a Fellow of its successor body, the Royal Astronomical Society, from the granting of its charter in 1831 until his death in 1852.[1]

Taxonomic honours

The importance to science of Norris's cabinet of curiosities was acknowledged by leading naturalists of the day, including G.B. Sowerby I, L.A. Reeve, J.O. Westwood, J.B.L. Buquet and F.E. Guérin-Méneville, who between them named various mollusc and insect species in his honour;[5][6][7][8][9] although a number of these designations have since been deprecated,[10][11] at least seven remain current: the sea snails Norrisia norrisii (a.k.a. Norris's Top Snail)[12] and Favartia norrisii (a.k.a. Norris's Murex);[13] the land snail Calocochlia norrisii;[14] the ladybird Neda norrisii;[15] the weevil Heilipus norrisii;[16] the tortoise beetle Acentroptera norrisii;[17] and the longhorn beetle Pseudophosphorus norrisii.[18]

Ancestry

A memorial plaque in the Church of St Michael and All Angels, Croston, erected on the occasion of Norris's burial, features a modified version of the coat of arms borne by the illustrious and ancient Norris (or Norreys) family of Speke Hall. Thomas Norris's connection with this family is not entirely clear, but a cadet branch of the same name was present in the neighbouring village of Tarleton by the sixteenth century, and in the early seventeenth one of their number was the first Norris known to have acquired lands in Croston.[19] In the early nineteenth century, the Norris family of Davyhulme Hall, Urmston, claimed descent from the Norris family of Tarleton, and through them from the Norrises of Speke Hall;[20] any such claim would apply equally well to the Norris family of Croston, to whom Thomas Norris certainly belonged.

References
  1. "Biographical Notice of Thomas Norris Esq". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 13: 116. 1853. Bibcode:1853MNRAS..13Q.116.. doi:10.1093/mnras/13.4.87.
  2. Edward Baines (1836). History of the County Palatine and Duchy of Lancaster. Vol. III. p. 397.
  3. "List of Members (to the 6th of October 1834, inclusive)". Transactions of the Entomological Society of London. 1: xxxiii. 1836.
  4. "A List of Members of the Astronomical Society of London on June 10th, 1825". Memoirs of the Astronomical Society of London. 2: 310. 1826. Bibcode:1826MmRAS...2..305.
  5. G.B. Sowerby I (1832). "Characters of new species of Mollusca and Conchifera". Proc. Of the Committee of Science and Corresp. Of the Zoological Society of London. 2: 197.
  6. G.B. Sowerby I (1838). "Description of a new genus of Trochidea, belonging to the family of Gasteropoda phytophaga". The Magazine of Natural History. 2: 96.
  7. L.A. Reeve (1845). Conchologia Iconica: Or, Illustrations of the Shells of Molluscous Animals. Vol. III.
  8. John Obadiah Westwood (1836). "Description of a New Exotic Species of Longicorn Beetle". Transactions of the Entomological Society of London. 1 (2): 148. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2311.1838.tb00158.x.
  9. Félix Édouard Guérin-Méneville (1844). Iconographie du Régne Animal de G. Cuvier. Vol. III.
  10. Voluta norrisii at World Register of Marine Species
  11. Solenella norrisii at World Register of Marine Species
  12. Norrisia norrisii at World Register of Marine Species
  13. Favartia norrisii at World Register of Marine Species
  14. Calocochlia norrisii at Integrated Digitized Biocollections
  15. Neda norrisii at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility
  16. Heilipus norrisii at Insectoid.info
  17. Acentroptera norrisii at the Integrated Taxonomic Information System
  18. Pseudophosphorus norrisii at Insecta.pro
  19. Document DDHE/11/96 at Lancashire Archives
  20. John Burke (1833). A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland. Vol. I. p. 310.
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