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William Dummer (1677-1761) was Acting
Governor of the
Massachusetts Bay Colony from 1723 to 1728. "William
Dummer was one of the most experienced and practical statesmen in the period
of provincial history. Being in England in 1716, he was appointed
Lieutenant-Governor of the Province, through the interest of Sir William
Ashurst; and he held the office until 1730, when he was superseded by the
appointment of Mr. Tailer.
Few public men enjoyed, or have transmitted, a purer or
more enviable reputation. In 1722, when Governor Shute returned to England
for the purpose of instituting articles of complaint against the House of
Representatives for encroaching on the King's prerogative, the office of
commander-in-chief of the Province [passed on to] Lieutenant-Governor Dummer,
which he sustained with no less fidelity to the King than to the Province;
the interest and rights of which he [determined] the whole force of his
powerful mind to maintain, avoiding unprofitable controversies. All the
historians of the period speak of him in terms of high honor. 'I cannot help
heaping encomiums upon Lieutenant-Governor Dummer,' says Douglas, with whom
the language of praise was not easy or familiar. 'Mr. Dummer's
administration,' says Hutchinson, 'has been justly well spoken of. He
retired with honor, and was soon elected to the Council, where, from respect
for his former commission, he took the Chapter place of President; but,
being thought too favorable to the prerogative, after two or three years he
was left out.'
He passed the rest of his life in the bosom of his family
in dignified retirement; enjoying the [reward] of the consciousness of a
virtuous and useful life, and having, for the circle of his friends, men of
sense, virtue, and religion. By Eliot, he is said 'not to have been a
favorite of the popular party, but highly respected by all parties, when
their prejudices did not operate.'
He was a native of [Newbury] Massachusetts, and died in
1761, at the age of eighty-four. By his last will he bequeathed two hundred
pounds...to [Harvard University]; and left a great part of his
estate for charitable uses.'
At his bequest, the Governor's Academy was
opened in Byfield, Massachusetts in 1763. It was first called Dummer Charity School, then
Dummer Academy and, recently, Governor Dummer Academy. In
2006, the name changed to The Governor's Academy.
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