Charles Sumner (bishop)

Charles Sumner

Charles Richard Sumner (22 November 1790 - 15 August 1874, born at Kenilworth, was an English bishop.

Life

Sumner was educated at Eton and at Trinity College, Cambridge and graduated BA in 1814, MA in 1817. Later on he was ordained deacon and priest. In the two winters of 1814-1816, he ministered to the English congregation at Geneva, and from 1816 to 1821 was curate of Highclere, Hampshire. In 1820, George IV wished to appoint him canon of Windsor, but the prime minister, Lord Liverpool, objected; Sumner received instead a royal chaplaincy and librarianship, and other preferments quickly followed, till in 1826 he was consecrated bishop of Llandaff and in 1827 bishop of Winchester.

In his long administration of his latter diocese he was most energetic, tactful and munificent. Though evangelical in his views he by no means confined his patronage to that school. In 1869 he resigned his see, but continued to live at the official residence at Farnham until his death on 15 August 1874.

Works

He published a number of charges and sermons, and The Ministerial Character of Christ Practically Considered (London, 1824). He also edited and translated John Milton's De doctrina christiana, which was found in the State Paper office in 1823, and formed the text of Macaulay's famous essay on Milton.

Family

He married Jennie Fanny Barnabine Maunoir (23 February 1794 - 3 September 1849); they had four sons and three daughters. His son George, also a clergyman, was the husband of Mary Sumner, founder of the Mothers' Union. For more information on the life of Charles Richard Sumner, see the Life by George Sumner (1876).

His daughter, Emily Sarah Frances, married the Rev. Canon Robert Newman Milford (1829–1913), Rector of East Knoyle, Wiltshire (1865–1912) and Canon of Salisbury Cathedral, Wiltshire (1896–1912); their son Humphrey Sumner Milford was highly influential in early 20th century music and literature as Publisher to the University of Oxford.

His second daughter, Sophia Albertina, married William Henry Ridley.

His eldest daughter, Louisanna (1817–1899), married the Reverend William Gibson in 1837 and of their eleven children, Arthur Sumner Gibson became a rugby union international for England, playing in the first international in 1871; Herbert William Sumner Gibson became a Vice Admiral in the Royal Navy; Edgar Charles Sumner Gibson became Bishop of Gloucester; Walter Sumner Gibson became an academic reader at the Oxford University Press from 1914 and his nephew through his wife's youngest brother was the actor Laurence Olivier; and Alan George Sumner Gibson became the Coadjutor Bishop of Cape Town.

References

Attribution

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Sumner, Charles Richard". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 
•  Courtney, William Prideaux (1898). "Sumner, Charles Richard". In Sidney Lee. Dictionary of National Biography. 55. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 165-168.  ; Endnotes:
  • A Life of Sumner was published by his son, George Henry Sumner, in 1876
  • cf. Le Neve's Fasti, i. 49, ii. 257, 317, 429, iii. 21, 81
  • Stapylton's Eton Lists, p. 42
  • Lady Granville's Letters, i. 255
  • Burke's Landed Gentry
  • Foster's Alumni Oxon.
  • Gent. Mag. 1802 ii. 1066, 1847 i. 108
  • Times, 17 and 18 Aug. 1874
  • Guardian, 19 and 26 Aug. 1874
  • Pennington's Recollections, pp. 149–65
  • Ashwell and Wilberforce's Bishop Wilberforce, i. 65–82, 103–4, 150, 160, 263–4, 317, 401, ii. 248, iii. 61–2
  • Lucas's Bernard Barton, pp. 108–9, 161
  • information from Mr. W. Aldis Wright

Church of England titles
Preceded by William Van Mildert	Bishop of Llandaff 1826–1827	Succeeded by Edward Copleston
Preceded by George Pretyman-Tomline	Bishop of Winchester 1827–1873	Succeeded by Samuel Wilberforce