John Norton, 5th Baron Grantley


John Richard Brinsley Norton, 5th Baron Grantley, FSA, FRNS, was a British peer from an English landowning family.

Early life

Norton was born in Florence, Italy, the son of Thomas Norton, 4th Baron Grantley and his wife, Maria, née Federigo, and a grandson of Caroline Norton, the writer. He was educated at Highgate School from 1867 until 1869, and then at Harrow School and the University of Dresden. He inherited his father's title in 1877 and was at some time a captain in the Middlesex Yeomanry.

Estates

Grantley was a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, the Royal Numismatic Society and the British Numismatic Society. His country seats were Weeke Manor in Winchester and Markenfield Hall in Ripon. He also owned Elton Manor in Nottinghamshire for a time, but seems hardly to have lived there. He purchased the Red Rice estate in 1913.

Family

In 1879, Grantley married Katharine Buckner Norton, née McVickar, the former wife of his cousin, Charles Grantley Campbell Norton. She was the daughter of Commodore William Henry McVickar, US Navy, of New York. They had six children.
He married secondly, in 1899, Alice Jones, the illegitimate daughter of Thomas Jones, 7th Viscount Ranelagh.
On his death in 1943, his titles passed to his only surviving son, the Hon. Richard Henry Brinsley Norton, film maker and husband of Jean Mary Kinloch.

Arms