[1] He sailed to Valparaíso, Chile in 1851 and on March 13, 1851, he married Ellen Lyles Hobson of Baltimore, a daughter of a former United States consul.

After the wedding, Norris returned with his bride to the family estate, Brookland, near Reisterstown, northwest of Baltimore.

Norris made no secret of his southern sympathies and with the outbreak of war he and his family left for Virginia.

1861, Magruder gave Norris authority to establish a system of signals on the Peninsula and across the James River.

The Secret Service Bureau oversaw a communications network whose missions included the running of agents to and from Union territory and the forwarding of messages from Confederate officials in Richmond to contacts in Canada and Europe.

In 1866 Norris wrote a letter to the lawyer defending John H. Surratt from complicity in the Lincoln assassination.