John Norton (25 January 1857 – 9 April 1916) was an English-born Australian journalist, editor and member of the New South Wales Parliament.

Norton was selected by the Trades and Labor Council of New South Wales to go to Europe in 1886 to tell potential immigrants that Australia was not a workers' paradise.

He became the owner of the Sydney newspaper, Truth in 1896 and it became even more abusive of public figures, leading to increased circulation and legal action including trials for criminal libel and sedition, which he generally managed to beat.

He and his family lived in a huge mansion called St. Helena, situated at Torrington Road, Maroubra in Sydney's eastern suburbs.

He became embroiled in a murder investigation regarding the death of one George Grohn (de Groen), who died in mysterious circumstances in John Norton's house on 9 November 1902.

Norton was alleged to have organised a Randwick physician named Dr. Osborne H. Reddall to issue a death certificate stating Grohn had died of "natural causes".

It was also alleged that the death certificate was written out while Dr. Reddall was in Truth's Sydney office, before the physician had even viewed the body.

The 1906 inquest into Grohn's death produced an open finding due to lack of medical evidence, but serious doubts over the incident always remained.

[5] John Norton is recognised as coining the Australian word 'wowser', for one whose overdeveloped sense of morality drives them to deprive others of their pleasures; a person regarded as excessively puritanical; a killjoy.

I first gave it public utterance in the City Council, when I applied it to Alderman G. J. Waterhouse, whom I referred to as the white, woolly, weary, watery, word-wasting wowser from Waverley".

Redmer Yska, in his book Truth: The Rise and Fall of the People's Paper, states on page 16 that Norton, in a drunken stupor, once urinated on the floor of the chamber in view of members.

Initially, the family lived at Watsons Bay but by 1905 they had moved to a mansion, St Helena, overlooking Maroubra Beach.

On 15 April 1916, huge crowds attended his funeral service at St James' Church and later at his elaborate burial at South Head Cemetery.

[16][18] In his will John Norton disinherited his wife Ada and son Ezra and left the bulk of his estate to his 9-year-old daughter, Joan.

[20][21] Later, his daughter Joan Norton, as Mrs Ben Shashoua, was the petitioner behind the bankruptcy of Sydney businessman Hugh D.