The son of Elias Norgate, a surgeon, and Deborah, daughter of Alderman Thomas Starling, he was born at Norwich, on 20 August 1772.
He was a writer on various topics in the Monthly Magazine, and supplied the Half-yearly Retrospect of Domestic Literature from 1797 to 1807, when the publication was discontinued.
His close friend William Taylor introduced him to Ralph Griffiths, the editor of the Monthly Review, for which he wrote for a time while living in retirement on his estate at Hetherset in Norfolk.
[1] In 1829 Norgate wrote the introductory chapter on the Agriculture of the County for John Chambers's General History of Norfolk.
His fourth son, Thomas Starling Norgate (1807–1893), born 30 December 1807, was educated at Norwich grammar school under Edward Valpy, and graduated B.A.