Sumner (William H.) is born in Roxbury.

The son of Increase and Elizabeth (Hyslop) Sumner, William Sumner graduates from Harvard College, studies law, and is admitted to the bar. He serves in the Massachusetts legislature (1811-19)[1818-1834-JPHS] and as adj. general in the Massachusetts quartermaster corps (1818-34). He marries Mary Ann DeWolf in 1826, after her death Maria Foster Doane in 1836, and after her death Mary Dickinson Kemble in 1848. Sumner begins to develop family-owned land on Noddles Island into what becomes East Boston in 1833.* He moves to 10 Roanoke Avenue in 1852,* and dies in Jamaica Plain in 1861.