Henry Handley Norris

Born in London to a wealthy Russian merchant, Norris graduated from Cambridge as BA in 1793 and MA in 1796. He had a close and life-long friendship with Joshua Watson beginning in 1794 when they organised a subscription for a company of Shropshire militia stationed in Hackney. Norris was ordained in 1796 becoming curate of Hackney beginning his life in service to the Church of England, which he bolstered by his endowments. He was appointed prebend of the Llandaff Cathedral in 1816 and in became prebend of St. Paul’s Cathedral while also being chaplain to the sixth Earl of Shaftesbury. In 1805, he married Henrietta Catherine on the 19th of June. He published The Influence of the Female Character Upon Society in 1801 as a response to the upheaval of the French Revolution, he also published A Manual for the Parish Priest in 1815 and A Pastor’s Legacy in 1851. He was the ‘acknowledged leader’ of the Hackney Phalanx and with Watson helped found the National Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church in 1811 and remained active in the SPCK and SPG. He was a generous patron to several charities, helping organise relief for German refugees of the Napoleonic War and later supported colonial churches. He was against the Catholic Emancipation, and his ecclesiastical influence waned after a revolt over his leadership of the SPCK in 1834.