Early in 1657 he returned from Ireland, and on 1 June embarked with ten other Friends for
Boston, from where six of them had been expelled the previous year. They sailed in the
Woodhouse, owned and commanded by Robert Fowler, a quaker of
Bridlington Quay,
Yorkshire, who wrote
A True Relation of the Voyage. Norton landed about 12 August 1657 at
Rhode Island, and at once proceeded to the
Plymouth Colony. He was arrested on a vague charge of being an extravagant person, "guilty of divers horred errors", and detained some time without examination. Upon presenting a paper setting forth his purpose in coming, and requiring that he be "quickly punished or cleared", he was brought before the magistrates, and the governor,
Thomas Prence, commenced an attack on what he alleged to be quaker doctrines, which Norton answered. Unable to convict him of any breach of the law, the court on 6 October 1657 sentenced him to banishment, and he was conveyed by the under-marshal fifty miles towards Rhode Island. Towards the close of the year he passed over to
Long Island, and, arriving in February at
Southold, he was arrested and taken to
New Haven, Connecticut, where he was imprisoned for twenty-one days, heavily ironed, and denied fire or candle. On 10 March 1658 he was brought before the court at New Haven and examined.
John Davenport, minister of the
puritan church there, undertook to prove him guilty of heresy. On his attempting to reply, a large iron key was bound over his mouth. The trial lasted two days. Norton was then recommitted, and, after ten days, was sentenced to be whipped, branded with the letter H (for heretic) in his right hand, fined £10, and banished from New Haven. Norton then returned to Rhode Island, where the local authorities wisely considered that the quakers, if let alone, would not prove so aggressive. After some weeks, however, Norton returned with
John Rous to Plymouth, to attend the
Plymouth General Court and protest against the intolerant treatment of their sect. On arriving there on 1 June 1658 they were arrested and imprisoned. Two days later they were brought up before the magistrates and questioned as to their motive in coming. Both were recommitted to prison. Two days after they were again brought up and charged with heresy by Christopher Winter, a constable and surveyor, but a public disputation was denied. The magistrates, failing to convict of heresy, decided to tender the oath of fidelity to the state. On their
refusal to "take any oath at all", they were ordered to be flogged, Norton with twenty-three lashes. The flogging ended, they were liberated on 10 June. About the end of June 1658 Norton and Rous went to Boston, and were warned to depart at once. Instead, they attended the weekly lecture of
John Norton, who uttered strong invectives against their sect. On Humphrey Norton attempting to reply at the close, he was haled before the magistrates, imprisoned three days, whipped, and returned to prison. On 16 July he wrote a letter to Governor
John Endecott and John Norton. A fresh order that quakers in prison should be regularly flogged twice a week was put in force from 18 July; but the public of Boston were growing disgusted with the cruelties practised in the name of religion, and they made a public subscription to pay the prison fees and forward the prisoners to
Providence, Rhode Island. ==After leaving New England==