Thomas Norris, Deemster of the Isle of Man, who pronounced sentence of death on Illiam Dhone and was imprisoned for it.

He gave the law before he gave the sentence. On 26 November 1662 the question was put to him in writing, over Richard Stevenson's signature: to declare under their hands what the law deemed against any person indicted for any manner of crime, of whatever nature, who refused or denied to come to the bar to receive his trial or abide the law of the Island. Norris answered that the law in such a case deemed such a person to be in the mercy of the Lord for life and goods, as they found by ancient records, and he signed it as Deemster. Robert Quayle, John Garrett, Thomas Fletcher, William Quayle, Robert Calcott, John Standish and Thomas Ratcliffe signed with him.

The trial followed on that opinion. When William Christian refused to plead anything but the King's Act of Indemnity, Deemster John Christian did not appear and his son Edward, acting as his assistant, forbore to sit, which left Norris alone on the bench. He craved the advice and assistance of the twenty-four Keys, and sentence of death was pronounced on 31 December 1662.

London reversed it and came after the judges. Ewan Christian, son of William, petitioned, and on the hearing of the case on 5 August 1663 full restitution of the estates was ordered to be made to the heir. The two Deemsters who had decreed Christian's death, Thomas Norris and Hugh Cannell, were ordered to be committed and to remain prisoners in the King's Bench, and to be proceeded against in the ordinary course of justice. The other parties who had been summoned were discharged.

He kept his place in ordinary business afterwards. He is one of the attesting witnesses, with Richard Stephenson, to the grant of Ballagilley and Hango Hill in Malew to trustees for the fund out of which King William's College grew.