Henry Norwood

Henry Norwood (c. 1614 – 1689), of Bishampton, Worcestershire (or, later, of Leckhampton, Gloucestershire) supported the Royalist cause in the English Civil War as a distinguished cavalry officer fighting as a volunteer at Bristol and Worcester.

After the defeat, trial and execution of Charles I, he set out on what proved to be a difficult journey to Virginia, where a cousin (Sir William Berkeley) was governor.

Upon his release he was involved in Booth's Uprising and, subsequently, acted as a messenger between Charles II of England and Edward Montagu, Earl of Sandwich.

It is likely that the outbreak of the English Civil War intervened to halt a potential legal career: In 1647, Norwood's name was listed as owing debts and duties to the Inn; but on 30 May 1660, the day after the Restoration, he was finally called to the bar.

Norwood joined the Royalist forces in the early days of the Civil War and was commissioned in December 1642 to raise a troop in Gloucestershire and Worcestershire.

Strangely, perhaps, in the light of those connections, Norwood himself says my best cargaroon (usually illicit cargo) was his Majesty’s gracious letter in my favour, which took effect beyond my expectation, because it recommended me (above whatever I had or could deserve) to the governor’s particular care.

It is not clear why the three were in London at that time: One source, not especially reliable, suggests that they had intended a mission to rescue Charles I from Carisbrooke Castle but arrived too late.

After about ten days (during which the supposed cannibalism - of the corpses of those who died - occurred) the party were found by friendly Native Americans, and taken by canoe to their own village of (or in) Kickotank.

There (or rather, at neighbouring Wormeley's, across the creek) he met with old acquaintances before moving on, borrowing a horse, to Jamestown, finally reaching his destination, Sir William Berkeley's house at Green Spring Plantation, about the middle of February.

There is independent verification of the disastrous voyage, although different in several details from Norwood's account, in a petition to the High Court of Admiralty in 1650, by dependents of crew members, against the captain and owners of The Virginia Merchant.

Although the King Charles II was in Scotland following the Treaty of Breda, he apparently granted a patent appointing Norwood as Escheator, Treasurer and Receiver of Quit Rents in Virginia.

The tension between Virginia and the Parliament in England culminating in the surrender of the colony on 12 March 1652 (but not ending then) probably precluded that, at least until the re-election of Sir William Berkeley in 1660.

The assertion that he returned to Virginia seems to be based on the account given later by Edmund Custis on examination by John Thurloe in 1655[17] but that was to some extent a cover story for their firearms activity, and is nowhere corroborated.

In late December 1654, Norwood was involved in the purchase and transport of firearms to Sir Henry Lyttelton (and, perhaps, others), almost certainly as part of the preparation for risings in conjunction with the Penruddock uprising.

Tangier had been part of the dowry of Catherine of Braganza when she married Charles II of England in 1662, but was constantly under threat of attack by native forces.

In June 1666 he took over as Governor of Tangier from John, Baron Belasyse, who as a devout Catholic had felt unable to accept the Act of Uniformity and resigned.

Once back in England he disposed of his Virginia Treasury post on terms which ensured a continuing share of the profits and acquired instead the position of Warden of the Fleet Prison, employing a deputy to deal with the actual functions of the office.