Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and letters of Charles Sumner: volume 1

The tombstone of Major Sumner is in the centre of St. Paul's Churchyard, on Broadway. It is by the side of that of Major John Lucas of the Georgia line, who died the month preceding. Both stones,—lying horizontally, with hardly any space between them, and the two closing lines of poetry running across from one to the other,—were doubtless erected by the Society of the Cincinnati. That of Major Sumner gives his age incorrectly,—it being thirty-five instead of thirty-three.

The inscriptions are as follows:—

this tomb
is erected to the memory
of
Major John Lucas,
of the Georgia line of the army
of the Revolution,
and
Treasurer of the society of
the Cincinnati of that State.

he bore
A severe and lingering Decay
with that Fortitude
which ever marked his character
as A soldier,
and
died in this city on Tuesday
the 18TH August, 1789,
aged 33 years.

Alike in arms they ranged
Alike in turn to Death

and
this tomb contains the remains
of
Major Job Sumner,
of
the Massachusetts line
of
the same army,
who,
having supported an Unblemished
character through life
as
the soldier, citizen, and friend,
died in this city,
after A short illness,
Universally regretted by his
acquaintances,
on the 16TH day of Sept., 1789,
aged 33 years.

the Glorious Field,
the victors yeild.

In 1799, Charles Pinckney Sumner sought information as to the tomb from a correspondent in New York. In 1829, at his request, his son Charles visited the yard and wrote, with a rough sketch, an account of its site, condition, and surroundings. The father caused it, soon after, to be repaired, through the good offices of his friend, Colonel Josiah H. Vose.

Major Sumner's estate was valued at about $12,000. It consisted chiefly of land-warrants, one of which was for forty-six hundred acres, and of securities of the United States and of the State of Georgia, which had risen in value with the adoption of the National Constitution. The most interesting items of the inventory were a Shakspeare in eight volumes, Smith's ‘Wealth of Nations,’ ‘Don Quixote,’ ‘Junius,’ ‘Adventures of Ferdinand ’