NORTH COURT, a seat in Shorwell parish, Isle of Wight; adjacent to Shorwell village, 4½ miles S S W of Newport. It was founded, in the latter part of the time of Elizabeth, by Sir John Leigh; it passed to the Bulls, the Bennetts, and the Gordons; it belongs now to Sir H. P. Gordon, Bart.; it is a good specimen, the only one in fair preservation, of the picturesque gabled mansions which were numerously erected in the island in the times of Elizabeth and James I.; and it stands amid beautiful and extensive grounds.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))