Founded by St. Norbert in 1120, at Premontre, France, the White Canons wore a long white cloak with hood over a white cassock, topped off by a white cap (birretta). They, like the Cistercians, preferred remote, unpopulated sites, and were given to manual labor. Also, like the Cistercians, their churches were all dedicated to "Our Lady." They came to England in 1143, founding a house at Newham, eventually growing to 31 abbeys. Remains that can be seen, today, include: Dryburgh, Easby, Egglestone and Titchfield.

The Norbertines, also known as the Premonstratensians and in England, as the White Canons (from the color of their habit), are a Christian religious order of Augustinian canons founded at Prémontré near Laon in 1120 by Saint Norbert, afterwards archbishop of Magdeburg. Norbertine priests are designated by O Praem following their name. On Christmas in the yeare 1120, St. Norbert and his companions founded the Canons Regular of Prémontré of the valley of Premontre in the Massif de Gobain. As clerics living in common and according to a Rule authenticated by the Church, in this instance the Rule of St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430), Norbert cast himself and his followers as agents of the Gregorian Reform.

St. Norbert had made various efforts to introduce a strict form of canonical life in various communities of canons in Germany; in 1120 he was working in the diocese of Laon, and there in a desert place, called Prémontré, in Aisne, he and thirteen companions established a monastery to be the cradle of a new order. They were canons regular and followed the so-called Rule of St. Augustine, but with supplementary statutes that made the life one of great austerity. Missionary work, reform of the feudal Church, occupied Norbert's energies until his death on June 6, 1134. By then the rudimentary reforms St. Norbert initiated in the Valley of Premontre were established the length and breadth of Europe, even reaching to the fabled isle of Crete and the Holy Land.

Norbert like St. Malachy was a friend of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux and he was largely influenced by the Cistercian ideals as to both the manner of life and the government of his order. But as the Premonstratensians were not monks but canons regular, their work was preaching and the exercise of the pastoral office, and they served a large number of parishes incorporated in their monasteries. Pope Gregory VII (Hildebrand) set about eliminating the practice of lay investiture, or lay control of the appointment of bishops. Bernard of Clairvaux and the Cistercians were revolutionizing the monastic world with a stern return to the primitive Rule of Benedict. And Norbert of Xanten led a thoroughgoing movement to improve the lives of the parish clergy. With the Pope focusing on the bishops, Bernard concentrating on the monks, and Norbert emphasizing the parish clergy, the times witnessed a resurgence of Christian spirit beneficial to Church and world alike. At the same time Norbert came in touch with reforms. In Paris he would have witnessed the Canons of St. Victor -- that is, parish clergy who adopted the ascetic ideals of William of Champagne. At Clairvaux and Citeaux he would have beheld the Cistercian reforms of t he world of the monks. He noted that their churches had plain wooden crosses and walls bare of pictures or stained glass, that their diet was vegetarian and that they were allowed only six hours of sleep a night, while they were required to work at least seven hours a day in manual labor, mostly farm work. He also became acquainted with the Cistercian administrative system that created an international federation of monasteries with a fair amount of centralized power, though local houses had a certain amount of independence. These reforms, written up in their "Charter of Charity."

The order was founded in 1120. In 1126, when it received papal approbation, there were nine houses; and others were established in quick succession throughout western Europe, so that at the middle of the 14th century there are said to have been over 1,300 monasteries of men and 400 of women. The Norbertines played a predominant part in the conversion of the Wends and the Christianizing of the territories around the Elbe and the Oder. In time mitigations and relaxations crept in, and these gave rise to reforms and semi-independent congregations within the order. The Norbertines came into England about 1143, first at Newhouse in Lincoln, and before the dissolution under Henry VIII there were 35 houses.

By the beginning of the 19th century the order had been almost exterminated, only eight houses surviving, all in Austria. At the start of the 20th century there were 20 monasteries and 1,000 priests. As of 2005, the number of monasteries had increased to nearly 100 and spread to every continent. St. Norbert Abbey, as it developed, would establish daughter houses: Paoli, Pennsylvania; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Jackson, Mississippi; and Lima, Peru. St. Norbert claimed the ruined chapel of St. John the Baptist in the Valley of Premontre as "the haven of my salvation." Since the loss of Abbeys and in 1856 a new congregation of Norbertine canons, since incorporated with the order, was formed at Frigolet. Frigolet founded Conques and St-Jean de Cole in France, and Storrington and Weston-Bedworth in England.