John MacNaughton was born in 1759 or 1760 in Scotland. He was a botanist and reportedly worked for a time as a landscape gardener for King George III in England. Due to antagonistic feelings towards the Scots at the time, John changed his name to Norton. John married Eleanor Jones around 1803 and the couple came to Prince Edward Island in 1821 with their nine children, Jean Marie Henrietta, Catherine Jemina Murray, Louisa Frances Courtis, John James Huddart, James Henry Stuart, Ann, Eleanor and one-year-old twins Frederick Peter and Sophia Emeline. The Nortons lived in a log cabin along the shore of the Brudenell River. They later built Norton House, situated off the Georgetown Road overlooking Brudenell Island. John died 5 March 1830 at age seventy. He is buried in the Brudenell cemetery.

Frederick Peter and his twin sister Sophia Emeline were born 20 April 1820 in Caemawr, Wales. At the age of twenty-three, Frederick went on a year long tour of England, Scotland and Ireland during which he kept a detailed journal. Frederick lived in Charlottetown in 1848 and1852 and then bought the family farm from his mother and brothers. Frederick married Rosina Davis of Charlottetown in 1854 and the couple had eight children including Edward, Alice, Emma, James F., Helena, Egerton, Frederick and William, who died at age three. Frederick and his family lived on Sidney Street in Charlottetown 1856-1857. Frederick was a sheriff in Kings County for several years. He also worked as an auctioneer, ran the family farm and ran a general store in Georgetown. Frederick died of a heart attack in 1868 at the age of forty-seven.