Charles Pinckney Sumner

Charles Pinckney Sumner (January 20, 1776—April 24, 1839) was an American attorney, abolitionist, and politician who served as Sheriff of Suffolk County, Massachusetts from 1825 to 1838. He was an early proponent of racially integrated schools and shocked 19th-century Boston by opposing anti-miscegenation laws. His son was famed abolitionist and U.S. Senator Charles Sumner.

Early life and education Sumner was born on January 20, 1776, out of wedlock to Esther Holmes. His father, Major Job Sumner, was a Harvard student who dropped out of classes to serve in the American Revolution. After the Revolution, Job Sumner served as a commissioner for the new Confederation government to settle claims with Georgia.

Sumner attended Phillips Academy and then Harvard College, where he became a personal friend to Joseph Story. At his graduation in 1796, he delivered a valedictory poem in the chapel. Under Story's influence, he became an ardent Jeffersonian in politics, even though Massachusetts was a strongly Federalist state.

Career He then studied law under Josiah Quincy. They were described as exceedingly formal and undemonstrative.

They had at least nine children: twins Charles (1811-1874) and Matilda (1811-1832), Albert (1812-1856), Henry (1814-1852), George (1817-1863), Jane (1820-1837), Mary (1822-1844), Horace (1824-1850), and Julia (1827-1876). Charles attended Boston Latin School and Harvard College; after his father's death, he was elected United States Senator in 1851 and became a leader in the crusade against slavery.

The family first lived on Botolph (now Irving) Street in Boston's wealthy Beacon Hill neighborhood, where Charles and Matilda were born. Later, they moved to Hancock Street, where they lived in a modest home. The family attended Trinity Church. After his 1826 promotion to sheriff, they moved to a much larger thirteen-room, three story home at 20 Hancock Street and occupied a pew in King's Chapel.

His "Eulogy on the illustrious George Washington. Pronounced at Milton, twenty-second February, 1800" was published by Horace Mann. He delivered various speeches, poems, and letters.

He was a second cousin of Edwin Vose Sumner.