Benjamin Norton Defoe (fl. 1720–?)

Benjamin Norton Defoe, fl. 1720, son of Daniel Defoe, was an undistinguished journalist and one of Walpole's hack writers. Richard Savage claimed that he was "Daniel's Son of Love, by a Lady, who vended Oysters" in An Author to Be Lett (1729). He appeared in Alexander Pope's first edition of The Dunciad as Daniel's literary heir: "She saw in N—n all his father shine" (Book I, l. 91) but Pope later changed the line to identify Daniel Defoe as the literary heir of William Prynne. As the 1729 Dunciad Variorum explains it: "The first edition had it, She saw in Norton all his father shine; a great mistake! for Daniel de Foe had parts, but Norton de Foe was a wretched writer, and never attempted Poetry. Much more justly is Daniel himself made successor to W. Pryn, both of whom wrote Verses as well as Politicks" (Book I, 101 n.). Pope also notes Norton's supposed bastard origins:

Norton, from Daniel and Ostroea sprung, Bless’d with his father’s front, and mother’s tongue, Hung silent down his never-blushing head; (Book II, ll. 415–17)

Oyster-sellers were stereotypically associated with prostitution, but Benjamin Norton Defoe was the legitimate son of Daniel and his wife Mary Tuffley, daughter of a successful tradesman. Pope accused Norton of being an anonymous contributor to The Flying Post, a paper in which Pope had found himself abused.

—Allison Muri