Charles Sumner was born in Boston, Massachusetts on January 6, 1811 to the proud parents of Mr. Sumner was very silent about his life growing up and genealogy. Mrs. Sumner's grandfather was an extensive landholder and a surveyor of Hanover. In Plymouth County, he was a town selectman, member of the Revolutionary Committee on Public Safety, and a state representative. Sumner's grandfather was Major Job Sumner. He fought under General Washington after he quit his classes at Harvard. After the revolution, Major Job Sumner served as the U.S. commissioner to settle the accounts between the Confederation and Georgia. He failed to marry Ester Holmes, who was speculated to be partly of Negro or Indian blood. This caused his son, Charles Pinckney Sumner, to be born out of wedlock. Charles Pinckney Sumner became a lawyer by profession. He supplied the family with about a thousand dollar yearly household income. Charles Pinckney Sumner was forced to send his son to school in course, chunky shoes and cheap sky-blue satin clothes. Charles Sumner was also a twin. He and his sister Matilda were premature babies weighing only three and one half pounds each. They were not expected to live very long. At birth, Mrs. Sumner decided to give Matilda to a nurse's care and she took care of Charles. Matilda and Charles never experienced the closeness that twins experience because the separation. Charles hoped that his relationship with his father would strengthen with the death of his twin sister Matilda at the age of twenty one. By that time, Mrs. Sumner had given birth to nine (five boys and four girls) other children. Charles thought if he learned to speak Latin, like his father, it would win his father's affection . On September 6, 1826 Governor Levi Lincoln appointed Charles Pinckney Sumner as the sheriff of Suffolk county. The household income increased to two thousand dollars yearly. The increase in the income made it possible for Charles Sumner to go to college.