Norvell had ten sons by three wives. His third wife, Isabella Hodgkiss Freeman (1804–1873) was the adopted daughter of Tristram B. Freeman, a noted Philadelphia printer and founder of the Freeman auction house. Her parents were Michael Hodgkiss and Sarah DeWeese. With Isabella, Norvell fathered two daughters and eight sons, one fought in the Mexican–American War and six fought in the American Civil War. They all survived the war. Colonel Freeman Norvell, was a Marine Lieutenant who fought at the Battle of Chapultepec in September 1847 and in the Civil War at the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863. Freeman's younger brother Lt. Dallas Norvell served on the staff of General George Custer. Another son, Colonel Stevens Thompson Norvell was an officer with the 10th Cavalry Buffalo Soldiers after the war and at the Battle of San Juan Hill with Theodore Roosevelt during the Spanish American War. Norvell's older daughter Isabella Gibson Norvell married Capt. Angus Keith, a Great Lakes boat captain, and the younger daughter Emily Virginia Norvell married Henry Nelson Walker, a newspaper owner, lawyer, and attorney general of Michigan.