Increase Sumner (1746-1799) - Find a Grave Memorial

Massachusetts Governor. He served as Governor of Massachusetts from 1797 to 1799. He previously served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives and the Massachusetts State Senate. He was Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (1782-1797), and was a member of the Massachusetts Convention which approved the United States Constitution. He died in office at the beginning of his third term as Governor.

Bio by: Joseph Craven

Inscription

Here Repose the Remains of INCREASE SUMNER. He was born at Roxbury November 27th, 1746 and died at the same place, June 7th, 1799 in the 53d year of his age.
He was for some time a practitioner at the bar, and for fifteen years an associate judge of the Supreme Judicial Court, was thrice elected Governor of Massachusetts, in which office he died.
As a lawyer, he was faithful and able; as a judge, patient, impartial and decisive; as a chief magistrate, accessible, frank, and independent.
In private life, he was affectionate and mild; in public life, he was dignified and firm. Party feuds were allayed by the correctness of his conduct; calumny was silenced by the weight of his virtues; and rancor softened by the amenity of his manners.
In the vigour of intellectual attainments and in the midst of usefulness, he was called by divine providence to rest with his fathers; and went down to the chambers of death, in the full belief that the grave is the pathway to future existence.
As in life he secured the suffrages of the free and was blessed with the approbation of the wise, so in death he was honored by the tears of the patriotick and is held in sweet remembrance by a discerning and affectionate people.
DISCITE VIRTUTEM EXHOC. VERUMOUE LABOREM