James Norton Jr., (5 December 1824 – 18 July 1906),[1] was a solicitor and member of the New South Wales Legislative Council.[2]
Norton was born in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, the eldest son of James Norton, also a member of the Legislative Council and solicitor in large practice in Sydney, by his first wife, Jane, daughter of Alexander Kenneth Mackenzie.[3]
Norton was appointed to the New South Wales Legislative Council in October 1879,[4] and was Postmaster-General in the Stuart ministry from May 1884 to October 1885.[3] He served in the council until his death in 1906.[2]
Norton practised as a solicitor in Sydney, being a Fellow of St Paul's College within the University of Sydney and a trustee of the Free Public Library and Australian Museum. He married first, at Longford, Tasmania, in June 1854, Harriott Mary, eldest daughter of Thomas Walker, Deputy Assistant Commissary-General of New South Wales (who died in 1860); and, secondly, at Sydney, in December 1862, Isabella, eldest daughter of Rev. William Stephens, of Levens, Westmoreland.[3]
Norton was a member of the Royal Society of New South Wales from 1873, and was a founder of Linnean Society of New South Wales in 1875, president in 1899 and 1900,[1] and the orchid Adenochilus nortonii was named in his honour.[5]