Educated at St Bartholomew's Hospital where he was apprenticed to Thomas Wheeler, Apothecary to the Hospital, and was House Surgeon to Abernethy, whose favourite pupil he became and with whom his friendship endured to the great surgeon's death. After qualifying Norton settled in London and soon gained a lucrative practice, but the results of a post-mortem wound compelled him to give up active work. He travelled for a time as medical attendant to the Earl of Sefton and his family and then settled in Uxbridge, where, though he kept up a practice, he was able to enjoy an open air life and to ride to hounds during the season. He again went to London in 1840, and, not seeking much work, contented himself with a small consulting practice in a West End suburb, where as a physician he secured a considerable reputation. He now did his life's work as an active and much-valued member of the Court of Examiners of the Society of Apothecaries, performing his duties with devotion during thirty-five years, a period when the Society was generally admitted to have furthered the cause of medical education in a high degree. Norton was scarcely ever absent from his post as Examiner and was held in high honour by his colleagues. He was for many years Chairman of the Court of Examiners at Apothecaries' Hall, and was also at one time Physician to the Samaritan Free Hospital for Women and Children. He died of pleurisy at his residence, 42 Hereford Road, Westbourne Grove, on September 20th, 1876, his illness lasting only a few days. His second son was Arthur Trehern Norton (qv). His photograph is in the Fellows' Album.