# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Norris, John (1657-1711)

​NORRIS, JOHN (1657–1711), divine, was the son of John Norris, incumbent of Collingbourne-Kingston, Wiltshire, where the son was born in 1657. The elder Norris afterwards became rector of Ashbourne, Wiltshire, and died on 16 March 1681. A tract written by him against conventicles was published by the son in 1685. The younger Norris was educated at Winchester, and in 1676 entered Exeter College, Oxford. He graduated B.A. on 16 June 1680. A dispute was going on at this time between the warden and the fellows of All Souls', the fellows refusing to take an oath which would prevent them from disposing of their offices for money. The warden forbade an election, and the appointment thereupon lapsed to the visitor, Archbishop Sancroft, who at the warden's suggestion appointed Norris to one of the vacant places. The warden described him as an ‘excellent scholar,’ and he soon became a prolific author. His earliest writings (see below) show that he was already of mystical tendencies, and was a student of Platonism. In 1683–4 he had a correspondence with the famous Platonist, Henry More [q. v.], upon metaphysical problems (appended to his ‘Theory of Love’). A sermon on the ‘Root of Liberty,’ published in 1685, is dedicated to More, with whom he had discussed the theory of the freedom of the will contained in it. Other early writings show that he was a decided churchman, opposed both to whigs and nonconformists. On 22 April 1684 he took his M.A. degree, and was soon afterwards ordained. In 1687 he published his most popular book, the ‘Miscellanies.’ It includes some poems characteristic of his religious views, one of which (‘The Parting’) contains a line about ‘angels' visits, short and bright,’ afterwards adopted in Blair's ‘Grave’ and Campbell's ‘Pleasures of Hope.’ In 1689 he accepted the living of Newton St. Loe, Somerset, and married. In the following year he published his ‘Christian Blessedness,’ the appendix to which contains his criticism upon Locke's recently published ‘Essay.’ In 1692 he became rector of Bemerton, near Salisbury—the former home of George Herbert. The income, we are told, was 200l. or 300l. a year, and welcome to a man with a growing family. He says, however, himself in 1707 that his clear income was little more than 70l. a year, and that the world ran ‘strait and hard with him.’ He remarks also that he had no chance of preferment in the diocese, of which Burnet was then bishop (Aubrey, Letters, &c., 1813, pp. 156–8, and see anecdote in Nichols's Lit. Anecd. i. 640). Some of his books were popular, and went through many editions, but apparently brought him little profit. According to John Dunton [q. v.] he supplied many hints to the ‘Athenian Gazette,’ and would take no reward, though his strong memory and wide reading made him very useful. His theories led him into various controversies. He attacked the quakers for what he held to be their ‘gross notion’ of the inner light as compared with his philosophy, and he replied to Toland's attack upon Christian mysteries. He corresponded with the learned ladies, Mary Astell and Locke's friend, Lady Masham, with the last of whom he had a controversy upon the exclusive love of God. He then devoted his time to his chief performance, the ‘Essay towards the Theory of an Ideal and Intelligible World,’ which appeared in two parts in 1701 and 1704. Norris was a disciple of Malebranche, and expounds his master's doctrine of the vision of all things in God, in ​opposition to the philosophy of Locke. He is interesting as the last offshoot from the school of Cambridge Platonists, except so far as the same tendency is represented by Shaftesbury. His Platonism was radically opposed to the methods which became dominant in Locke's exposition, and Locke made some remarks, first published in the ‘Collection’ of 1720, upon Norris's earlier criticisms (Locke, Works, 1824, ix. 247–58). Locke and Molyneux refer rather contemptuously to Norris, ‘an obscure, enthusiastic man,’ in their correspondence (ib. viii. 400, 404; see also Locke's ‘Examination of Malebranche,’ ib. pp. 211–55). Norris, though an able writer, is chiefly valuable as a solitary representative of Malebranche's theories in England.
In other respects he seems to have been a very amiable and pious man, with much enthusiasm, whether in the good or the bad sense, and of pure and affectionate character. He published one or two other works of a practical and devotional kind, and died at Bemerton in 1711. He is commemorated by a marble tablet, bearing the words ‘Bene latuit,’ on the south side of Bemerton Church. He left a widow, two sons, both afterwards clergymen, and a daughter, who married Bowyer, vicar of Martock, Somerset. A bust was placed in the library, built by the bequest of Christopher Codrington [q. v.], at All Souls.
[Wood's Athenæ (Bliss), iv. 583–6; Biogr. Britannia; Locke's Letters, 1708; Burrows's All Souls, p. 267; Boase's Register of Exeter Coll. p. 213; Hearne's Collections (Doble), ii. 62, 104; iii. 455; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. i. 137, 640; Julian's Dictionary of Hymnology; Pylades and Corinna, 1732, ii. 199–216, gives some letters from Norris to Mrs. Thomas.]
L. S.