James Norfolk

Sir James Norfolk (died 1680) was Serjeant-at-Arms to the Speaker of the House of Commons of England during the reign of Charles II.

Biography In 1656 Norfolk purchased Colchester Castle from Charles, Lord Stanhope. On Norfolk's death it passed to his son, who sold it in 1688 to a John Wheely.

Shortly before the return of Charles II to England and the restoration of the monarchy, ignoring those who held letters of patents for the office of Serjeant-at-Arms granted by Charles I, the House of Commons of the Convention Parliament appointed James Norfolk to the office on 25 April 1660.

In January 1661 James Norfolk was instructed by the House to find the bodies of the regicides John Bradshaw, Oliver Cromwell, Henry Ireton and Thomas Pride. He located the first three corpses which were then—on 30 January 1661 (12 years to the day since the execution of Charles I)—subject to a posthumous execution: disinterred, hanged at Tyburn and beheaded. The bodies were thrown into a pit and the heads placed on spikes at the end of Westminster Hall (the building where the trial of Charles I had taken place).

Norfolk was reappointed as Serjeant-at-Arms to the Speaker of the House of Commons in May 1661 with Royal consent.