The Mysterious Jonathan Norcross

I was driving through Georgia near Atlanta and passed a town call Norcross. I worked with someone named Norcross, and wondered if the person the town was named for was any relation. They were related by marriage like twenty times removed. I didn't know anyone whose family owned a town, so I decided to investigate. Jonathan Norcross' origin proved to be more interesting than the town itself.

According to his biography on at least three websites, Jonathan Norcross was born at Orono, Me, on April 7th, 1808 of sturdy New England parentage. He was born the son of a clergyman. The websites had the exact same information right down to the picture. Jonathan Norcross' history seems to begin in 1844 at the age of thirty-six, when he arrived in Atlanta. He resided there continuously until 1898. His family was said to come from Puritan stock, which settled in Massachusetts in 1635, running back three hundred years to Norcross Manor, Litliers, England. In my search I did not find Litliers, England. I did find some other Norcross aka Norcrosses with English beginnings I thought would lead to Jonathan.

I got as far back as Henry Norcrosse (1550-1623) name Vicar from 1573 to 1616, is engraved in the stone inside old Angle Church (St. Wilfrid's) in Ribchester. This information was gathered by Philip Norcross Gross of Canada (http://norcross.ca/) for his family tree. His death and burial are recorded in the Ribchester Parish Records. Not very much seem to known and verified.

Thomas Norcrosse (1558-1617) was born at Dilworth, Ribchester, Lancashire, England. I could not find information at this time about his parents. Thomas Norcrosse could be a brother or cousin of Henry Norcrosse of Ribchester, England. According to the Norcross Family Tree the Haberdashers' Company was one of many trade guilds, which were very prominent in England from about 1550. Haberdasher members were dealers in men's furnishings. He married Mary Chappell. Thomas and Mary had three sons, John, Jeremiah and Thomas. The family lived in the parish of St. Dustan's in West Fleet Street, London. The family may have lived in the parishes St. Sepulchre's, London and Sunbury in or near London.

According to John Norcrosse (1590-1642) history page, John purchased 22 acres of land in Cambridge and lived there until 1642 when he returned to England leaving his daughter and son-in-law behind in America. John's son Thomas had a son named Thomas William Norcrosse. This Thomas became a Quaker and immigrated to the William Penn Colony in America in 1699 starting what we call the "John Branch" of the Norcross family in America. John Norcrosse was the grandfather of William Norcrosse, founder of the Norcross family of Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Jeremiah Norcrosse (1592- 1657) was the brother of John above. According to the Norcross family tree, two brothers, John and Jeremiah Norcrosse, migrated with some members of their family, sometime between in 1633 and 1638 to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Jeremiah was first mentioned in 1633 in the Records of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, as holding land next to Nathaniel Foote. In 1642 he settled in Watertown. He was a Selectman of Watertown in 1649. He was admitted as a Freeman in 1653. He was the founder of the Massachusetts Norcross's. Jeremiah was a proprietor, owning a homestead of 26 acres situated on the Charles River and twelve other lots of land. It was situated on the Charles River, and was where the United States Arsenal grounds are now situated. In 1816 the land was sold to the United States government for an Arsenal by Jeremiah's heirs.

Researching the Norcross family got a bit confusing at times because there were several sons named Thomas, Jonathan, Jeremiah and Nathaniel. Richard Norcrosse (1621 to 1790), second and youngest son of Jeremiah Norcross, was born in London, England in 1621. He came to New England with his father about 1638, about 17 years of age. In 1642, he is in Watertown with his father and owns a homestead of one acre and a small lot of upland. Richard was the first family member to enter the Vital Records of this new country with his marriage in 1650 to Mary Brooks and his children between 1652 and 1671.

Richard Norcross (1660-1745) was a shoemaker in Weston, adjacent to Watertown. Richard Norcross, the second son of Richard. I noted that the 'e' at the end of the name was dropped for the American branch of the family. He had a large family of eleven children, eight sons and three daughters. His sons settled in different parts of the Massachusetts and Connecticut. John settled at Sudbury, Samuel at Durham, Connecticut, Jeremiah at Lunenburg, George at Brookfield, Peter at Mendon, William at Shrewsbury.

Nathaniel Norcross (1664-1717) was born in Watertown. Like his father Richard Norcrosse, Nathaniel was a shoemaker. He lived both at Sudbury and then Watertown. This is the branch that will lead to Georgia. Philip (1697 to 1748) was the fourth child and the youngest son of Nathaniel Norcross. His family consisted of nine children, five sons and four daughters. Two of Philip's sons, Samuel and Jonathan moved from Newton. Samuel's name is found among the early settlers of Gardener, Maine in 1762. Jonathon is among the early settlers of Georgetown (now Bath, Maine) in 1760 and was the first settler by the name of Norcross in the State of Maine.

Jonathan Norcross (1734-1786), the fifth child of Philip Norcross, was born in Newton, Massachusetts in 1735. He was the first Norcross settler in Maine. Jonathan Norcross was in military service in 1756, when he enlisted from Newton, Massachusetts in the expedition to Lake George in the French and Indian war. He was a soldier in the Revolutionary War from Georgetown, ME. He had a large family of children seven sons and six daughters all of whom lived to be married except one son who was drowned in the Kennebec River.

Jonathan Norcross, the second son of Jonathan Norcross of Georgetown, now Bath, Maine, was born 1767. He married Jane Atkinson of Lancaster, England in Nantucket, Massachusetts. He had a farm in Wayne, Maine in 1798 of 100 acres. His brother, Nathaniel, two years younger, had a farm also in Wayne of 530 acres and another brother Deacon James had a farm of 50 acres at Readfield, Maine. The Norcross family was the largest land owners in Maine. He had nine children, four sons and five daughters.

Jesse Springer Norcross (1806-1850), the second son of Jonathan Norcross was born in Wayne, Maine. He and his wife lived in Winslow, Clinton, and Wayne, MA and then moving to Salem, Massachusetts in 1843. They had eight children (five sons, three daughters) all of whom were recorded born in Winslow, Maine except the youngest that was born in Salem, Massachusetts. He was a carpenter and a builder and the proprietor of the Norcross Mills near Winslow, Maine. After he came to Salem he continued to build. He built the Naumkeag factory at Salem and Methuen. When the California gold fever broke out in 1849, he was one of a company to start out for California. He built prefabricated houses ready to put up, and started with them on a vessel, the Ship Nestor, around Cape Horn to be erected after his arrival in California. Mr. Norcross died in Benicia, California in 1850, aged 44.

I got this far and there was no Jonathan Norcross born in 1808. Even where he's buried seems to be a mystery (http://politicalgraveyard.com/inqa.html#How). Norcross, Jonathan (1808-1898) of Atlanta, DeKalb County (now Fulton County), GA was born in Orono, Penobscot County, Maine. Strong religious influences, his father being a clergyman, and after receiving his education, which was limited to the elementary textbooks, he was taught the trade of a millwright. He subsequently went to Cuba, where he put up a mill for making sugar. He then attended lectures in mechanics at Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, and taught school in North Carolina. Later on he took charge of lumber interests in Southern Georgia for Northern capitalists.

In 1844 he came to Atlanta, where he entered into merchandising. He witnessed Atlanta's growth from an unpretentious village of less than 5,000 inhabitants into an enterprising metropolis of 100,000 people. He prophesied the future of Atlanta and has been one of its fathers, public-spirited and active.

In 1850 Jonathan was elected mayor, and gave the city an efficient administration. He worked early and steadily for railroad facilities, and secured the charter for the Air Line Railroad, becoming its president in 1858. He opposed secession, was a strong Whig and Federal man before the war. In 1876 he was the Republican candidate for Governor of Georgia, but because of the strong Democratic majority in the State, he was defeated. Mr. Norcross was instrumental in organizing the first bank started in Atlanta, and he took an active part in public enterprises of every kind.

He was always on the side of morality and temperance. In religious affiliation he was a Baptist, and he gave twenty acres of land near Atlanta for the founding of an Orphans' Home under the care of his denominational board. A Republican, Mr. Norcross enjoyed the confidence of his fellow citizens.

He was fond of literary work, published various articles on timely topics of interest, and made frequent contributions to the current religious and secular periodicals. He has been a vigorous and prolific writer. As a young man at the Franklin Institute he wrote an essay on "Mercantile Integrity "; in 1875 he printed a pamphlet against state sovereignty, and made a powerful speech on the need of public schools; and in 1844 he published "The History of Democracy," and has written a second work to show that democratic rule ever tends to wreck the government. He took a vital part in the agitation that produced the interstate commission.

Mr.Norcross was twice married: in 1845 to Mrs. H. N. Montgomery and in 1877 to Miss Mary A. Hill. He died in 1898, leaving one son, Rev. Virgil C. Norcross.

Resources & Work Cited: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Norcross
http://norcross.georgia.gov/05/home/0,2230,8345911,00.html;jsessionid=FE668E0AE9222A24E2E8038FBF5C5078
http://norcross.ca/NORCROSS%20FOLDER/N_1558_Thomas%20Norcrosse.html
http://norcross.ca/NORCROSS%20FOLDER/N_0010_Index%20of%20People.html