Norris served with, and under the patronage of, Sir Cloudesley Shovell from 1680 until promoted Captain in 1690. He was present with Shovell at the Battle of Malaga in 1704 and at the capture of Barcelona in 1705 when he was sent back to England with the dispatches. In 1715 he went to the Baltic commanding a fleet to protect the Anglo-Dutch traders. At an advanced age he commanded the Channel fleet during the War of Jenkin’s Ear, 1739–44.

The portrait is signed and dated ‘G Kneller 1711’. In the left background is a depiction of the ‘Blenheim’ shown flying Norris’s Union flag as commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean, 1710–11.