Born in Belleville, Canada West, the son of Anson Gilbert Northrup and Jane C. Balster, Northrup was educated at the Upper Canada College and the University of Toronto, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1877 and a Master of Arts degree in 1878.

A lawyer he was head of the firm of Northrup & Roberts, in Belleville.

[1] He first ran unsuccessfully as the Conservative candidate for the House of Commons of Canada for the Ontario electoral district of Hastings East in the 1891 federal election losing to Liberal Samuel Barton Burdett.

After Burdett died in office in 1892, Northrup was acclaimed in the resulting 1892 by-election.

[2] This article about a historical Conservative Party of Canada Member of the Parliament of Canada is a stub.