Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 55.djvu/174

 by his family to the diocese, and now hangs in the noble hall at Farnham. An engraving of it was made by Samuel Cousins in 1834. At the request of the authorities of Eton College he sat for the portrait, which is preserved in the college hall. A print of him drawn on stone by C. Baugniet is dated 1848.



SUMNER, JOHN BIRD (1780–1862), archbishop of Canterbury, eldest son of the Rev. Robert Sumner, and brother of Bishop [q. v.], was born at Kenilworth on 25 Feb. 1780. He was educated at Eton from 1791 to 1798, when he proceeded, being the first of his year, to King's College, Cambridge. He was elected scholar (5 Nov. 1798) and fellow (5 Nov. 1801). In the second quarter of his residence at Cambridge he was nominated to a ‘King's Betham scholarship,’ and held it until 1803. In 1800 he won the Browne medal for the best Latin ode, the subject being ‘Mysorei Tyranni Mors,’ and he was Hulsean prizeman in 1802. He graduated B.A. in 1803, M.A. in 1807, and D.D. in 1828.

In 1802 Sumner returned to Eton as assistant master, and in 1803 he was ordained by John Douglas, bishop of Salisbury. On 31 March 1803 he married at Bath Marianne, ‘daughter of George Robertson of Edinburgh,’ a captain in the navy, and sister of [q. v.] (Gent. Mag. 1803, i. 380). He thus vacated his fellowship at King's College, but he was elected to a fellowship at Eton in 1817, and in the following year was nominated by the college to the valuable living of Mapledurham, on the banks of the Thames, in Oxfordshire. Through the favour of [q. v.], the bishop of the diocese, he was appointed in 1820 to the ninth prebendal stall in Durham Cathedral. In 1826 he succeeded to the more lucrative preferment of the fifth stall, and from 1827 to 1848 he held the second stall, which was still better endowed, in that cathedral. Bishop Phillpotts, his contemporary and opponent, had previously held the ninth and the second canonry at Durham.

From 1815 to 1829 Sumner published a number of volumes on theological subjects, which enjoyed much popularity, and were held to reflect the best traits in the teaching of the evangelical party within the church of England. The soundness of Sumner's theological views, combined with his ripe scholarship and his discretion in speech and action, marked him out for elevation to the episcopal bench. He was also aided in his rise by the influence of his brother, at whose consecration at Lambeth on 21 May 1826 he preached the sermon. In 1827 he declined the offer of the see of Sodor and Man; but, on the promotion of Bishop Blomfield, he accepted in the next year the nomination by the Duke of Wellington to the bishopric of Chester. He was consecrated at Bishopthorpe on 14 Sept. 1828, the second of the consecrators being his brother. Though he was known to be opposed to any concessions to the Roman catholics, and had been appointed to his see by the Duke of Wellington partly on the ground of his antipathy to their claims, he voted, as did his brother, for the repeal of the disabilities which pressed upon them. He then addressed a circular letter to his clergy in vindication of his vote. He voted in favour of the second reading of the Reform Bill (13 April 1832), and he was on the poor-law commission of 1834.

The energy of the new bishop soon made itself felt throughout the (then undivided) diocese of Chester. He was indefatigable in obtaining the erection of more churches and the provision of schools, and by 1847 had consecrated more than two hundred new churches. A remarkable tribute to his zeal was paid in the House of Commons on 5 May 1843 by Sir Robert Peel, when introducing his resolutions for the constitution and endowment of ‘Peel’ districts in parishes where the population was in excess of church accommodation (Hansard, lxviii. 1287). The charges which Sumner delivered at the visitations of his diocese in 1829, 1832, 1835, and 1838 were published in one volume in 1839, and five editions were sold.

The leader of the tory party had selected Sumner for the see of Chester. The archbishopric of Canterbury became vacant on 11 Feb. 1848 by the death of Dr. Howley, and Sumner was chosen by Lord John Russell, the premier of the whig government, to succeed to the vacant place. He was confirmed at Bow church on 10 March, and enthroned at Canterbury Cathedral on 28 April 1848. Despite the strength of his evangelical convictions, he acted upon them