The Dictionary of Virginia Biography is published online through a partnership with Encyclopedia Virginia. Biographies that do not also appear in the three print volumes (surnames Aaroe�Daniels) link to lists of sources consulted.
Sources consulted for the biography of:Robert Norton ( –by 1898)
Biographical Information
- Short biography with undocumented birth date of 3 May 1838 in The Old Dominion. A Monthly Magazine of Literature, Science and Art (June 15, 1870): 363
- Age 24 on June 3, 1865, Massachusetts State Census, Massachusetts Archives, Boston, Massachusetts
- Age 30 on August 6, 1870 in United States Census Schedules, York County, 1870; age 35 on June 21, 1880, U.S. Census Schedules, York County, all in Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.
- Destruction of property in 1865 in March 13, 1866, hearing at Fort Monroe (Assistant Subassistant Commissioner), Letters Sent (March 1866–1867), Records of the Field Offices for the State of Virginia (1865–1872), Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, Record Group 105, M1913, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.
- First marriage in Springfield City Marriage Register 5 (1850–1862), City Hall, Springfield, Massachusetts (age 23 on July 29, 1862)
- Second marriage in Marriage Register, King William County, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Commonwealth of Virginia Department of Health, Record Group 36, Library of Virginia (age 30 on March 2, 1871)
- Age 30 on April 12, 1871 application (no. 2846), Registers of Signatures of Depositors, Freedman's Savings and Trust Company, 1865–1874, Records of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Record Group 101, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.
- Norton's estate recorded in Personal Property Tax Returns, York County, 1898, Auditor of Public Accounts, Record Group 48, State Government Records Collection, Library of Virginia
- Biography in Luther Porter Jackson, Negro-Office Holders in Virginia, 1865–1896 (1945), 30, 52 (photograph)
Political Career
- 1869 election result in General Orders and Circulars, Headquarters First Military District, 1869 (1870), "Summary of the result of the election for members of the House of Delegates of Virginia, held on the 6th day of July, 1869," p. 18
- Norton's election to the House of Delegates in 1871 (Election Record No. 3), 1873 (Election Record No. 6), 1877 (Election Record No. 13), 1879 (Election Record No. 14), 1881 (Election Record No. 17), and 1883 (Election Record No. 18), all in Secretary of the Commonwealth, Election Records, 1776–1941, Accession 26041, State Government Records Collection, Library of Virginia
- Norton's 1874 campaign for the House of Representatives in Papers in the Matter of James H. Platt, Jr. vs. John Goode, Jr., Second Congressional District of Virginia, 44th Congress, 1st Session, House of Representatives, Miscellaneous Document 65 (1876)
Newspapers
Norton's political career is well documented in Virginia newspapers, 1860s–1890s, but see especially:
- Hampton True Southerner, December 14, 1865
- Richmond Daily Whig, April 24, 1869; December 17, 1879; March 18, 1881; September 1, 1883
- Richmond Daily Dispatch, July 12, 1869; January 7, 1871; September 28, 1871; December 17, 1879; March 9, 1880; September 17, 1880; May 13, 1883
- Richmond Daily State Journal, July 10, 1871; June 28, 1872
- Richmond Whig and Advertiser, September 24, 1872
- Woodstock Shenandoah Herald, April 28, 1880
- New York Herald, October 27, 1888, quoting Robert Norton
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