Researching William Norris

Born into a clerical family, he was educated at Charterhouse and Trinity College, Oxford, before taking holy orders at Leeds Clergy School. After curacies in Eton and Chatham he embarked on a career that was to take him from pastoral (Incumbencies in Oxfordshire and Yorkshire) to administrative (Diocesan Educational Inspector) posts before a steady rise up the ecclesiastical ladder. He was successively Rural Dean of Silkstone, Rector of Barnsley, and Archdeacon of Halifax. In July 1902 he was appointed an honorary Canon of Wakefield Cathedral.

He became Dean of York in 1917, serving as such until 1925 when he was appointed Dean of Westminster. An exceptionally talented artist he wrote widely on church treasures. A much respected cleric, he died on 28 September 1937 and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

His grandson was Air Chief Marshal Sir Christopher Foxley-Norris the Battle of Britain pilot who went on to have a distinguished air force career.

He was born in London, the son of William Norris, who was President of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1824, and his wife, Hannah Phillips. He was baptised in Bray, Berkshire at two weeks old. He studied law at the Middle Temple and was called to the bar in 1827. He moved to India in 1829 to practice there.

He was knighted by letters patent in 1835 and appointed a puisne judge in Ceylon. He was promoted to Chief Justice of Ceylon on 27 April 1836, succeeding Charles Marshall, holding the post until 1837. He was succeeded by Anthony Oliphant. Norris was appointed despite William Rough having served on the bench since 1831, as acting puisne justice, senior puisne justice and as acting chief justice.

His son was the author William Edward Norris. His daughter Anne Grace Norris married the future Governor Arthur Havelock.

Norris was educated at Eton College and at Trinity College, Cambridge. Norris was a regular cricket player as a middle-order batsman in the first team at Eton, appearing in the Eton v Harrow match in both 1848 and 1849. At Cambridge, he had only one match for the first eleven, but that was the University Match of 1851 against Oxford University, when he batted at No 10 and scored 12 runs in his only innings. After this match, he played only in minor cricket.

Norris graduated from Cambridge in 1854 and was ordained as a Church of England priest. He served as curate at Langley, then in Worcestershire, at Aberford in Yorkshire and at Felixkirk, also in Yorkshire. From 1860 to 1875 he was rector of Oaksey, Wiltshire, and from 1875 to his death he was vicar of Flore, Northamptonshire.

Norris graduated from Ouachita Parish High School, Northeast Louisiana State College, and Tulane University Law School. Norris practiced law in West Monroe and served on the Ouachita Parish School Board from 1964 to 1971 and from 2011 to 2014 and was a president of the school board. Norris served as West Monroe city attorney from 1964 to 1970 and city judge from 1970 to 1974. From 1974 to 1980, Norris sat on the Louisiana Fourth Judicial District Court, based in Monroe. From 1981 until his retirement in 2002, Norris was a member of the Louisiana Court of Appeal for the Second Circuit, based in Shreveport. After he left his judgeship, he practiced law in West Monroe with his son, James Allan "Jim" Norris.

Norris was one of four children, two surviving, of William Wiley Norris II (1909–1987), a native of Smith County, Mississippi, and the former Rosalie Beeson (1911–1996). They are interred at Mulhearn Memorial Park Cemetery in Monroe. He was an active member of the First Baptist Church of West Monroe. He died at the age of seventy-nine in West Monroe from a stroke and is interred at Hasley Cemetery in West Monroe.

His younger brother, Dave Norris, has been since 1978 the mayor of West Monroe and the longest serving person ever in that position of city government.