Kate Norgate

Upon her death in 1935 the historian Kate Norgate was hailed by The Times as the best known and probably the most learned woman historian of what may be described as the pre-academic period.

Catherine (Kate) Norgate was born in St. Pancras, London, on 8th December 1853. When she became the protégée of the historian John Richard Green, she was ready to use to the full the opportunities that he gave her. Green encouraged her to devote herself to a history of the Angevins (Henry II and his sons, Richard I and John). By 1877, she had already made some progress with her first book. Her mother is said to have accompanied her to the British Museum and to have sat by her in the reading-room.

Kate Norgate worked steadily for over 40 years. Self-trained, yet scholarly in her approach to research, Norgate represented a transition point in the professionalisation of women historians.

Her major works include: England under the Angevin Kings (two volumes, 1887); John Lackland (1902); The Minority of Henry the Third (1912) and Richard the Lion Heart (1924). In addition she wrote several specialized essays and contributed 44 entries to the Dictionary of National Biography.

In 2022, Stephen D. Church, Professor of Medieval History at the University of East Anglia, wrote that: the term "Angevin empire” was popularised in academic circles by Kate Norgate, one of the great scholars of Victorian Britain, and has been widely adopted ever since.

Kate Norgate moved to Gorleston in either 1920 or 1921 when she was in her late 60’s. The 1921 census records her as living at Jasmine Cottage, 2 Church Lane, Gorleston. A modern day plaque on a neighbouring property indicates that these houses, known as Church Terrace, were built in 1914.

Why Kate Norgate chose to live out the remainder of her life in Gorleston is unknown, but I assume she would have been familiar with the area due to her parents’ strong links with Norfolk.

During her time living in Gorleston Kate Norgate published her final book, Richard the Lion Heart.

In 1929, she was made an Honorary Fellow of Somerville College, Oxford in recognition of her valuable work as a historian.

Kate Norgate died at her home, Jasmine Cottage, 2 Church Lane, Gorleston, on 17th April 1935 at the age of 81 years. Due to subsequent renumbering, the same property is now known as 58 Church Lane, Gorleston.                    

Stewart Adams