long coat, and a thin squeaking voice that raised a smile when heard in private. According to Chetwood he spoke tragedy with propriety, but seldom assumed any important part, for which his stature disqualified him. He acted Cato, however, gravely to Pinkethman's Juba at Pinkethman's theatre at Richmond, and in 1710 played at Greenwich the Dervise in ‘Tamerlane.’ Victor declared him the best Gomez in the ‘Spanish Friar’ and Sir Jasper Fidget in the ‘Country Wife’ that he ever saw. When Cibber played Barnaby Brittle in the ‘Wanton Wife,’ he was commended. Mrs. Oldfield, however, announced her preference for Norris, who seemed predestined to wear the horns. Davies speaks of him as an excellent comic genius, and says that his delivery of the two lines assigned him in the rehearsal in which he played Heigh ho! caused him to be called sometimes in the bills by that name as well as Jubilee Dicky. He was also spoken of as Nurse Norris.
Norris married about 1705 Mrs. Knapton, an actress, a sister of the first Mrs. Wilks. Her name appears occasionally in the bills. She was a fine and personable woman, a great contrast to her husband, whose stature was diminutive. By her Norris had issue. The marriage was announced on 28 Jan. 1731 of ‘Mr. Henry Norris of Drury Lane’ and Mrs. Jenny Wilks, daughter of Mrs. Wilks of the same house. This was probably the son of Norris who on 15 Nov. 1731 at Goodman's Fields, as Norris from Dublin, ‘son of the late famous comedian of that name,’ played Gomez in the ‘Spanish Friar.’ A second son of Norris was on the country stage. Neither, however, had anything in common with the father but diminutive stature. No portrait of Norris can be traced.
[Works cited; Chetwood's General History of the Stage; Genest's Account of the English Stage; Victor's History of the Theatre; Davies's Dramatic Miscellanies; Hitchcock's Irish Stage.]
NORRIS, HENRY HANDLEY (1771–1850), theologian, son of Henry Handley Norris of Hackney, by Grace, daughter of the Rev. T. Hest of Warton, Lancashire, was born at Hackney on 14 Jan. 1771. Educated at Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. 1797, M.A. 1806, he was admitted ad eundem at the university of Oxford on 23 Jan. 1817. In 1806 a chapel of ease was built by subscription in Hackney parish, and dedicated to St. John of Jerusalem. Norris liberally contributed to the cost, and in 1809, on becoming the perpetual curate of the chapel, made over to trustees a fee-farm rent of 21l. a year as an endowment, and erected at his own expense a minister's residence in Well Street. In 1831 the perpetual curacy became a rectory, and in this incumbency Norris remained till his death. His influence in the religious world was far-reaching. He came to be known as the head of the high church party, and Hackney was regarded as the rival and counterpoise of the evangelical school in Clapham. The statement has been made, but is probably not true, that during Lord Liverpool's long premiership every see that fell vacant was offered to Norris, with the request that if he would not take it himself, he would recommend some one else; and this rumour secured for him the title of the Bishop-maker. From 1793 to 1834, as a member of the committee of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, he largely ruled its proceedings; but in 1834 there was a revolt against his management, and he was left in a minority. He became a prebendary of Llandaff on 22 Nov. 1816, and a prebendary of St. Paul's on 4 Nov. 1825. In May 1842 the parishioners of St. John's presented Mrs. Norris with a portrait of her husband after thirty years' service in the church. Inheriting from his father an ample fortune, he was able to aid many students in their university and professional careers. Norris died at Grove Street, Hackney, on 4 Dec. 1850.
On 19 June 1805 he married Henrietta Catherine, daughter of David Powell, by whom he had a son, Henry, born on 28 Feb. 1810, formerly of Swancliffe Park, Oxfordshire.
Norris's best known work is ‘A Practical Exposition of the Tendency and Proceedings of the British and Foreign Bible Society, in a Correspondence between the Rev. H. H. Norris and J. W. Freshfield, Esq.,’ 1813; with an Appendix, 1814; 2nd edit. 1814. This correspondence arose from an attempt made by Freshfield to form an Auxiliary Bible Society in Hackney, to which Norris strongly objected. A pamphlet war ensued, and among the controversialists were Robert Aspland [q. v.] (1813) and William Dealtry [q. v.] (1815). His other writings were: 1. ‘A Respectful Letter to the Earl of Liverpool, occasioned by the Speech imputed to his Lordship at the Isle of Thanet Bible Society Meeting,’ 1822. 2. ‘A Vindication of a Respectful Letter to the Earl of Liverpool,’ 1823. These two works also gave rise to rejoinders by Schofield in 1822 and Paterson in 1823. 3. ‘The Origin, Progress, and Existing Circumstances of the London Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews,’ 1825. 4. ‘The Principles of the Jesuits developed
