Robert Carey Sumner (1729–1771) was Master of Harrow School in England.

Life

Born on 9 March 1728–9 at Windsor, he was grandson of a Bristol merchant and nephew of John Sumner the headmaster of Eton College. He was educated at Eton College and at King's College, Cambridge, where he was admitted a scholar on 18 December 1747 and a Fellow on 28 December 1750, graduating B.A. in 1752, and proceeding M.A. in 1755.[1]

Sumner became assistant master at Eton in 1751, and then Master at Harrow School. His marriage meant he vacated his fellowship. In 1768 he obtained the degree of D.D., and, dying on 12 September 1771, he was buried in Harrow church. He was the friend of Samuel Johnson and the master of Samuel Parr and Sir William Jones, both of whom in later years remembered him favourably.[1] William Whately called him "the best schoolmaster in England".[2]

Works

Sumner published Concio ad Clerum (London, 1768), which Samuel Parr praised for its Latinity.[1]

Family

On 3 August 1760 Sumner married the sister of William Arden, a scholar of King's College.[1]

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 Lee, Sidney, ed. (1898). "Sumner, Robert Carey" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 55. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  2. ↑ Skedd, S. J. "Sumner, Robert Carey". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/26786. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1898). "Sumner, Robert Carey". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 55. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

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