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Increase Sumner
Increase Sumner (November 27, 1746 – June 7, 1799) was an American lawyer, jurist, and politician from Massachusetts. He was the fifth governor of Massachusetts, serving from 1797 to 1799. Trained as a lawyer, he served in the provisional government of Massachusetts during the American Revolutionary War, and was elected to the Confederation Congress in 1782. Appointed to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court the same year, he served there as an associate justice until 1797.
He was elected governor of Massachusetts three times by wide margins, but died shortly after the start of his third term. His descendants include his son William H. Sumner, for whom the Sumner Tunnel in Boston, Massachusetts, is named, and 20th-century diplomats Sumner Welles and Sumner Gerard.
Increase Sumner was born on November 27, 1746, in Roxbury, Province of Massachusetts Bay, one of eight children of Increase Sumner and Sarah Sharp. The elder Increase Sumner was a successful farmer descended from early settlers of Dorchester; he held a number of public offices including coroner for Suffolk County, and selectman of Roxbury.
In 1752 Sumner enrolled in the grammar school in Roxbury, now Roxbury Latin School, where the headmaster was William Cushing, future justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Sumner excelled at school, and over the resistance of his father (who envisioned his son's future to be in agriculture) was enrolled at Harvard College in 1763. He graduated in 1767.
After graduating from Harvard, Sumner took charge of the Roxbury school, where he taught for two years while he apprenticed law under Samuel Quincy, the provincial solicitor general. He sought to study under John Adams, but the latter had enough students. Adams wrote that Sumner "was a promising genius, and a studious and virtuous youth." Sumner was admitted to the bar in 1770 and opened a law office in Roxbury that year.
Sumner was chosen a member of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress in 1776 where he represented the town of Roxbury. In 1777 he participated in a state convention to draft a new constitution, whose result was not adopted. He continued to serve in the provincial congress until the state constitution was adopted in 1780, when he was elected state senator for Suffolk County. This post he held for two years. In June 1782 he was elected to the Confederation Congress by the state legislature, replacing Timothy Danielson, who resigned, but Sumner never actually took the seat. In August 1782 Governor John Hancock nominated him as an associate justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to replace James Sullivan. He accepted this position instead of the senate seat, and served from 1782 to 1797. Details on his judicial record are sparse, in part because few official court records survive from the time, and decisions were usually oral (the court did not begin formal record keeping with written decisions until 1805). Sumner did take detailed notes of many of the cases he heard; these notes, preserved at the Massachusetts Historical Society, now form a valuable repository of early Massachusetts judicial history.
The period when he served in the Supreme Judicial Court included a time of great turmoil in Massachusetts. Following the American Revolutionary War the value of the paper currency then in circulation fell significantly leaving many citizens in financial difficulties. The administration of James Bowdoin in 1786 raised taxes to pay the public debt which had run up during the war, and stepped up collection of back taxes. These economic pressures led to outbreaks of civil unrest which culminated in Shays' Rebellion, an uprising in central and western Massachusetts lasting from 1786 to 1787. Sumner sat on the criminal cases in which participants of the rebellion were tried. Many participants were pardoned, but eighteen were convicted and sentenced to death. Most of these sentences were commuted; two men were hanged.
Sumner sat on the court when it heard the appeals in the Quock Walker cases in 1783, concerning a former slave who was seeking confirmation of his freedom. A ruling in one of these cases confirmed that the state constitution had effectively abolished slavery. In 1785 he was chosen by the legislature to sit on a committee which revised the laws of the state, to modernize them and remove references to British authority. In 1789 he was a member of the state convention that met to ratify the United States Constitution, in which he explained to the convention the meaning and importance of habeas corpus. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1791.
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Increase Sumner
Increase Sumner (November 27, 1746 – June 7, 1799) was an American lawyer, jurist, and politician from Massachusetts. He was the fifth governor of Massachusetts, serving from 1797 to 1799. Trained as a lawyer, he served in the provisional government of Massachusetts during the American Revolutionary War, and was elected to the Confederation Congress in 1782. Appointed to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court the same year, he served there as an associate justice until 1797.
He was elected governor of Massachusetts three times by wide margins, but died shortly after the start of his third term. His descendants include his son William H. Sumner, for whom the Sumner Tunnel in Boston, Massachusetts, is named, and 20th-century diplomats Sumner Welles and Sumner Gerard.
Increase Sumner was born on November 27, 1746, in Roxbury, Province of Massachusetts Bay, one of eight children of Increase Sumner and Sarah Sharp. The elder Increase Sumner was a successful farmer descended from early settlers of Dorchester; he held a number of public offices including coroner for Suffolk County, and selectman of Roxbury.
In 1752 Sumner enrolled in the grammar school in Roxbury, now Roxbury Latin School, where the headmaster was William Cushing, future justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Sumner excelled at school, and over the resistance of his father (who envisioned his son's future to be in agriculture) was enrolled at Harvard College in 1763. He graduated in 1767.
After graduating from Harvard, Sumner took charge of the Roxbury school, where he taught for two years while he apprenticed law under Samuel Quincy, the provincial solicitor general. He sought to study under John Adams, but the latter had enough students. Adams wrote that Sumner "was a promising genius, and a studious and virtuous youth." Sumner was admitted to the bar in 1770 and opened a law office in Roxbury that year.
Sumner was chosen a member of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress in 1776 where he represented the town of Roxbury. In 1777 he participated in a state convention to draft a new constitution, whose result was not adopted. He continued to serve in the provincial congress until the state constitution was adopted in 1780, when he was elected state senator for Suffolk County. This post he held for two years. In June 1782 he was elected to the Confederation Congress by the state legislature, replacing Timothy Danielson, who resigned, but Sumner never actually took the seat. In August 1782 Governor John Hancock nominated him as an associate justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to replace James Sullivan. He accepted this position instead of the senate seat, and served from 1782 to 1797. Details on his judicial record are sparse, in part because few official court records survive from the time, and decisions were usually oral (the court did not begin formal record keeping with written decisions until 1805). Sumner did take detailed notes of many of the cases he heard; these notes, preserved at the Massachusetts Historical Society, now form a valuable repository of early Massachusetts judicial history.
The period when he served in the Supreme Judicial Court included a time of great turmoil in Massachusetts. Following the American Revolutionary War the value of the paper currency then in circulation fell significantly leaving many citizens in financial difficulties. The administration of James Bowdoin in 1786 raised taxes to pay the public debt which had run up during the war, and stepped up collection of back taxes. These economic pressures led to outbreaks of civil unrest which culminated in Shays' Rebellion, an uprising in central and western Massachusetts lasting from 1786 to 1787. Sumner sat on the criminal cases in which participants of the rebellion were tried. Many participants were pardoned, but eighteen were convicted and sentenced to death. Most of these sentences were commuted; two men were hanged.
Sumner sat on the court when it heard the appeals in the Quock Walker cases in 1783, concerning a former slave who was seeking confirmation of his freedom. A ruling in one of these cases confirmed that the state constitution had effectively abolished slavery. In 1785 he was chosen by the legislature to sit on a committee which revised the laws of the state, to modernize them and remove references to British authority. In 1789 he was a member of the state convention that met to ratify the United States Constitution, in which he explained to the convention the meaning and importance of habeas corpus. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1791.
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