Came of a good family of Taunton, where he was born. He was educated at the London Hospital and then at St Bartholomew's, hearing Blizard's lectures at the former and Abernethy's at the latter institution. Shortly after qualifying he settled in practice at South Petherton, where he laboured with much skill for forty-four years and acquired popularity. In 1844 he was the oldest candidate to be examined for the Fellowship. In 1856, owing to increasing attacks of heart disease, he retired from active practice, when his friends presented him with a handsome silver inkstand and a purse of gold. He had always been interested in numismatics and palaeontology, and solaced himself with these in his last years, thus keeping up the versatile tradition of his family, of which Edwin Norris, the eminent orientalist, Cornish scholar, and decipherer of cuneiform, was a member (d 1872). Henry Norris lived in retirement at South Petherton, Somerset, and died at Charmouth on March 20th, 1870.