27, 1746, and died at the same place, June 7, 1799 in the 53rd year of his age. He was for sometime 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 decisive. In private life, he was affectionate and mild. In public life was dignified and firm. Party feuds were allayed by the correctness of his conduct. Calumny was silenced by the weight of his virtues and rancour 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. The lieutenant governor, Moses Gill, became acting governor and ran the state until elections were held in 1800. Family and legacy Sumner was married on September 30, 1779, to Elizabeth Hyslop, daughter of William Hyslop. Upon his father-in-law's death, Sumner inherited a sizable estate which allowed him to maintain a dignified lifestyle during his public service. The couple had three children; his son William H. Sumner is well known for his efforts to develop what is now East Boston and for whom Boston's Sumner Tunnel is named. His later descendants include Sumner Welles, a 20th-century diplomat and advisor to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Sumner Gerard, a 20th-century diplomat, Montana politician, and U.S. Ambassador to Jamaica. Sumner, Maine, incorporated while he was governor in 1798, was named in his honor. Sumner was described by his son as a talented and practical farmer and an excellent horseman. He was fond of agriculture and personally grafted an entire orchard of fruit trees on his farm. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and president of the board of trustees of the Roxbury Latin School. At his confirmation hearings in 2017, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch recalled being moved by reading Sumner's gravestone as a law student at Harvard. Gorsuch closed his opening statement by reading a portion of Sumner's epitaph and adding "[T]hose words stick with me. I keep them on my desk. They serve for