[= October 10, 1677 (N.S.)]. Little is known of Dummer's early years. Given the family's wealth, he probably attended the Boston Latin School, but he did not attend Harvard. His younger brother Jeremiah did go to Harvard, after which he went to Europe, studying at Leiden and Utrecht. In 1702 Dummer was elected to the membership of Boston's Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company. He went to England, most likely in the early 1700s, where he joined his extended family's merchant business. He returned to Massachusetts in 1712. While in England he is reported to have married a cousin in the Dummer family, whose death may have prompted his return to Massachusetts. This marriage produced no children. He then married Katherine Dudley, daughter of Massachusetts Governor Joseph Dudley, on April 26, 1714. In a gift that may have been made in anticipation of his wedding, his father in November 1712 gave him a substantial tract of land in the Byfield section of Newbury. The property became the couple's country home. Dummer divided his time between the Newbury property and the family home in Boston. Upon the death of Queen Anne in 1714, commissions issued during her reign were set to expire. This resulted in a political scramble for appointments to the leadership of Massachusetts between Dudley's supporters and proponents of a land bank proposal designed to deal with inflationary issuance of colonial currency. Dummer's brother Jeremiah was in London representing the Dudley faction. Although he was unable to secure Dudley's reappointment, he and Jonathan Belcher were able to bribe the successor chosen by the land bank faction, Elizeus Burges, to give up his commission. The commission for governor was finally issued in June 1716 to Samuel Shute, a land bank opponent, with William Dummer as lieutenant governor. Shute arrived in the colony the following October, at which time both assumed their offices. Lieutenant governor Dummer's role during Governor Shute's turbulent administration is not well documented. Shute had a difficult relationship with the provincial assembly, which refused to pay crown officials a regular salary, and objected to other policies Shute was instructed to implement. In 1720, during these ongoing disputes, the assembly reduced the grant it made to the lieutenant governor from £50 to £35. Dummer returned the funds, observing that his out-of-pocket expenses for his office even exceeded the £50 amount. The assembly also complicated Shute's negotiations with the restive Abenaki,