Together with the peerage, he inherited from his mother considerable estates, including the manors of Rycote,[2] Albury,[3] Wendlebury,[4] Chesterton,[5] Dorchester,[6] Thame,[7] Beckley and Horton in Oxfordshire,[8] and Wytham,[9] Cumnor[10] and Frilsham,[11] all then in Berkshire.

[24] As befitted his royalist descent and connection with Osborne, now Earl of Danby and Lord High Treasurer, Norreys belonged to the court party, later the Tories.

Although enthusiastic, Norreys was notoriously unwell, having suffered from "black jaundice" (perhaps Weil's disease), reputedly to the point of interfering with his parliamentary business.

[2] In July, the town clerk of Oxford died, and Norreys recommended Thomas Baker as a Tory candidate for the post to Sir Leoline Jenkins, the Southern secretary.

The grand jury of Middlesex, which was Whiggish, failed to indict College; he was then brought before the Oxfordshire assizes for alleged misdeeds there.

College had been a prominent figure at the assembly of the Oxford Parliament, riding into town armed and armoured to protect Protestantism, he claimed, from a Catholic rebellion.

This can hardly have endeared him to Norreys, charged with keeping the peace in Oxford for the duration of the Parliament, and it was understood that he would engineer a successful indictment of College.

Such was indeed the case: College was charged with sedition before a grand jury whose foreman was Norreys' younger brother Henry and committed to trial.

College and his counsel, Aaron Smith, put up as good a defence as could be expected, and much of the evidence against him was circumstantial; but he could hardly hope to escape, and was promptly condemned to death.

[28] In October 1687, James II issued the "Three Questions" to his lord lieutenants, intended to identify supporters of his programme to remove the legal disabilities against Catholics.

The lord lieutenants were to address these questions to members of the commission of the peace in their respective counties and remove those hostile to Catholic tolerance.

[29][30] As James' program for generating a compliant government escalated, the borough of Oxford was "regulated", and the corporation dissolved in June 1688 by Order in Council.

[2] During the year, he also bought the manor of Littleton Panell, adjacent to his West Lavington estate, from Robert Tyderlegh and his wife, Mary.

While the attack was not pursued, Abingdon's political history at Oxford left his position under William always somewhat insecure, despite the renewed influence at court of Danby, now Marquess of Carmarthen.

This was a prudent move: Norreys was defeated in Berkshire (he may not even have gone to the poll there),[33] but was returned for Oxfordshire after a bruising campaign which included accusations of Jacobitism levelled against Abingdon, which so dispirited him he considered resigning the lord-lieutenancy,[34] much to the dismay of Clarendon.

[35] In 1693, upon the death of his political rival Lord Lovelace, Carmarthen obtained for Abingdon the post of Justice in Eyre south of the River Trent.

Abingdon was increasingly at odds with the Whig-dominated government; to this was added the old quarrel over the Danvers estates with his wife's brother-in-law, Lord Wharton, one of the members of the Junto.