Also 4 sumnor, 5 -ere, 6 -ar, (erron. summer, sunner); 4–5 sumpnour(e, 6 sumpner. [a. AF. sum(e)nour, f. sumen-, sumon-: see SUMMON v. and -ER1. Cf. SOMNER, SOMPNOUR.] One who is employed to summon persons to appear in court; esp. a summoning officer in an ecclesiastical court. Now surviving in the Isle of Man.
1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. II. 46. For Sisours, for Sumnors [B. II. 58 sompnours, v.r. sumpnoures; C. III. 59 somners], for Sullers, for Buggers.
c. 1475. Pict. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 781. Hic sitarius, a sumner.
1558. in Feuillerat, Revels Q. Eliz. (1908), 24. In paninge of two Sumpners cotes .10.
a. 1596. Sir T. More, IV. v. 149. Thou art reseru’de To be my sumner to yond spirituall courte.
1599. Thynne, Animadv. (1875), 85. The bisshop is not her, his sunner, the officiall, ner yet his chansler.
1600. 1st Pt. Sir J. Oldcastle, II. i. 66. I am my lord of Rochesters Sumner.
1602. 2nd Pt. Return fr. Parnass., IV. ii. 1694. You that liue like a sumner vpon the sinnes of the people.
1612. Dekker, If it be not Good, I. i. Two of thy Summers dead-drunke here too.
1726–31. Waldron, Descr. Isle of Man (1744), 77. An Officer…, called a Sumner, lays a Straw over his, or her Shoulder, and says, By virtue of this, you are Yarded for the Service of the Lord of Man.
1868. Milman, St. Paul’s, 121. The sumner, and the bellringer of the Cathedral.
1887. Hall Caine, Deemster, xii. Next day the Bishop sent his sumner round the parish.
fig. a. 1591. H. Smith, Serm. (1637), 349. Age, sicknesse, and Death, the three Sumners.
a. 1612. Harington, Epigr., II. lxii. An Abbot … cited now, by deaths sharpe Sumner, sicknesse.
1891. Hall Caine, Scapegoat, i. What the sumner of the Lord of Hosts had not done, the sumner of the Lord Sultan very speedily brought to pass.
