Richard Norwood (b. c. 1590 – d. 1675) was an English mathematician, diver, and surveyor. He has been called "Bermuda’s outstanding genius of the seventeenth century".
Early life and first survey of Bermuda Born about 1590, Richard Norwood was sent out by the Somers Isles Company to survey the islands of Bermuda in 1616 (also known as the Somers Isles), then newly settled. After a quick initial survey, in which the total land area was roughly estimated, he completed a more thorough final survey. He was later accused of collusion with the governor, and that, after assigning the shares to all the settlers, an "overplus" of eight shares of the best land remained over due to a discrepancy between the initial estimate and the final survey, which were taken for the personal advantage of himself and the Governor (when it became evident there would be an overplus, the Governor had stopped him surveying from East to West, and obliged him to resume surveying from the less desirable Ireland island at the extreme West End towards the East. ensuring the overplus would lie in the more desirable area of Southampton Parish (roughly where the Port Royal Golf Course is today). His map was published in London in 1622.
Residence in Bermuda In 1623, Norwood patented lands in Virginia, but it does not appear that he ever went there. He is said to have resided at that date in the Bermudas. He may have made several visits to the islands, but according to his own statements he was, for some years before 1630 and after, up to 1640, resident in London, near Tower Hill, as a teacher of mathematics. He is also credited with founding Bermuda's oldest school, Warwick Academy, in 1662. Between June 1633 and June 1635 he personally measured, partly by chain and partly by pacing, the distance between London and York, making corrections for all the windings of the way, as well as for the ascents and descents. He also, from observations of the sun's altitude, computed the difference of latitude of the two places, and so calculated the length of a degree of the meridian (arc measurement). His result was some 600 yards too great; but it was the nearest approximation that had then been made in England. Isaac Newton noted Norwood's work in his Principia Mathematica.
English Civil war During the English Civil War he resided in Bermuda, where he had a government grant as schoolmaster. He was also much involved with local government. On the 14th of May, 1645, Norwood wrote to the Governor and Company in London:
I suppose it is not altogether unknowne to you that this whole country almost consisteth of two partyes, the one of those that embrace or well approve the independent way here begunne, and these doe all adhere to Mr. White as their principall (wth his peace be it spoken, as I thinke he will take no offence at it, beeing so notorious and well knowne as it is) and amongst these also seemes to be a great part of those that are truely religious; not but that there are also diverse as truely religious and as sound christians that stand out and are against it. The other party (wch is farre the greater number) is of those that hold to the former discipline here used, untill the Parliament shall order otherwise; And these for the most part adhere to an old gentleman here, who (as an understanding gentleman of this Comp. once wrote) knowes how to use them to his owne ends; And there are few in the country but seeme to adhere either to the one of these or to the other. It is my hard lott (and some others also) to have the favor of neither of them, because I cannot fully conforme to either of them; whence chiefly it hath come to passe, that I who in England scarce ever had sute against any man, or any man against me; have here scarce ever bene free from suites and troubles, though I have wronged no man". A Somers Isles Company magazine ship, which had left England before the King's 30 January 1649 execution, arrived at Bermuda in March, 1649, bearing news of the King's impending trial. It also bore instructions from the Company stripping the moderate Royalist Captain Thomas Turner of the office of Governor (which had been filled by a succession of Bermudian settlers since the 1630s, in contrast to the company's earlier practice of dispatching governors to the colony) and ordering that the colony be governed by a triumvirate composed of the moderate Richard Norwood, Captain Leacraft (also spelt Leicroft), and Mr. Wilkinson. However, Leacraft had died before the instructions arrived, Wilkinson was a strong Independent, obnoxious to the dominant Church faction in the Council and the House of Assembly, and was not permitted by them to exercise his commission, and Norwood would not accept his own commission without Wilkinson. On the 18 December 1649, the Earl of Pembroke, Colonel Purefoy, Sir W. Constable, the Earl of Denbigh, Lord Whitelocke, Colonel Wanton, and Mr. Holland were appointed by the Council of State, with any three or more of them to be a committee with authority to examine the business of Bermuda. The Council of State Orders for the 1 January 1650, lists:
(17) That the following Reports brought in from the Comttee Appointed for the business of the Summers Island bee approved of vizt: (18) That the Government of the Summers Island bee setled on Capt Foster, and his Councell, as already is appointed by ye Company (19) That all Captaines and Commanders of the Forts and Castles within ye said Island, bee nominated and appointed, by ye said Governour wth the Consent of this Councell. (20) That the said Governour and Councell, doe choose another Secretary in ye place of Vaughan if they see cause; That the Gouernour and all other officers of Trust doe take the Engagmt according to ye order of Parliament.
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