Colonel Henry Norwood fought on the Royalist side during the Civil War. After the beheading of Charles I he went to America to help establish the colony of New England, where the exiled King Charles II appointed him Treasurer of Virginia.

He took part in the expedition that led to the capture of New Amsterdam (now New York) and was later appointed as Lieutenant Governor of Tangier; his attitude at that time drew a disapproving comment from Samuel Pepys in his Diary.

After returning to Gloucestershire in 1669 he was elected as one of the Members of Parliament for Gloucester and was later its mayor.