Roger Sumner

ROGER SUMNER, from whom this family descended, was an inhabitant of Bicester, in the county of Oxford, England, where he married Joan Franklin, 2d November, 1601. He was buried in St. Edburg Church-yard, at Bicester, 4th December, 1608. He had one son, William.

Roger Sumner of Bicester, Oxfordshire, England, husbandman, died there 12/3/1608. He is buried in the Saxon town of Bicester, of remote antiquity, in the county of Oxford, England, and thirteen miles from that city [Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, p. 263].

In the little town of Bicester, Oxfordshire, there stands to this day the picturesque church of St. Edburg, the most interesting spot in all England to the visiting Americans of the name of Sumner. This church, it is said, was erected in 1400 with the same material and upon the same site of a much more ancient building. Here lies buried the body of Roger Sumner, and here, in 1605, was baptized his son, Wm. Sumner, the father of the Americans of the name. Roger, the father, was born in the little town of Bicester. He married Joan Franklin in 1601. William was their only child.

He was buried in the St. Edburg churchyard, in Bicester.

Sumner is derived from Old English "sumenor" or Norman "somenour"--one who summons persons to an ecclesiastical court (e.g. Hugh le Sumenor in the Hundred Rolls of Cambridgeshire, 1274). The motto on the Sumnercoat-of arms is "In Medio Tutissimus Ibis," (Thou will go safest in the middle course.)

References

1. http://records.ancestry.com/roger_sumner_records.ashx?pid=7158504
2. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Sumner-143 cites
   1. The Pilgrims of Boston and Their Descendants, pages 90-91 < Archive.org >
   2. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/80493977
   3. Appleton, William S. Record of the Descendants of William Sumner, of Dorchester, Mass., 1636. Boston: D. Clapp & Son, 1879.
   4. https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/L78F-B62
3. Extracts from the Register of Bicester, Oxfordshire, England https://www.wikitree.com/photo/jpg/Sumner-348