Non omnia possumus omnes: [student theme], 1795 December 28

A somewhat playful manuscript poem describing a weary student, Tom Delve, who throws off his "tiresome books" to "exchange my hopes of fame for ease" because the world of art, unlike science, is too broad to ever master.

Additional poems by Sumner can be found in the collections of the Harvard University Archives (call numbers HUC 6796.83 and HUC 6796.84). The Archives also holds a collection of college memorials collected by Sumner and his son, Charles Sumner (1811-1874), documenting their years as students at Harvard.

Charles Pinckney Sumner (1776-1839), Sheriff of Suffolk County, was born in Milton, Massachusetts on January 20, 1776. Originally named after his father, Job, his parents decided to change his name to Charles Pinckney while he was young, probably in honor of the South Carolina statesman. His father was a descendant of William Sumner, who came to Dorchester, in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, from England in 1635. Charles Pinckney studied at Phillips Academy at Andover before entering Harvard College, where he received an A.B. in 1796. Following graduation, he read law in the office of Josiah Quincy. On April 25, 1810, Sumner married Relief Jacob (1785-1866); they had nine children together, all born in Boston. He was Clerk of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1806 to 1807 and again from 1810 to 1811, before becoming sheriff of Suffolk County. Charles Pinckney Sumner served as sheriff from 1825 until his death on April 24, 1839.