page_title: William Dummer
section_title: Legacy
hierarchical_section_title: William Dummer / Legacy
caption_attribution_description: The "Mansion House" (formerly the residence of Massachusetts colonial governor William Dummer, the school's founding patron) at The Governor's Academy in Newbury (Byfield), Massachusetts.
context_page_description: William Dummer was a politician in the Province of Massachusetts Bay. He served as its lieutenant governor for fourteen years, including an extended period from 1723 to 1728 when he acted as governor. He is remembered for his role in leading the colony during what is sometimes called Dummer's War, which was fought between the British colonies of northeastern North America and a loose coalition of native tribes in what is now New Hampshire, Maine, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia.
  Dummer was born into a wealthy Massachusetts merchant family, traveling to England as a young man to participate in the business. Upon his return to Massachusetts in 1712 he entered provincial politics, gaining a royal commission as lieutenant governor through the efforts of his brother Jeremiah. He served during the turbulent tenure of Governor Samuel Shute, in which Shute quarreled with the assembly over many matters. Shute left the province quite abruptly at the end of 1722, while it was in the middle of a war with the natives of northern New England.
  The war was brought to a successful conclusion by Dummer.
context_section_description: Dummer made several charitable bequests in his will.  He gave £200 to Harvard College, as well as a £50 grant for the purchase of books, and partially endowed two professorial chairs.  His single largest gift was the grant of his Newbury property for a preparatory school.  First called the Dummer Charity School, it opened on February 27, 1763.  In its later history it was known as Dummer Academy, and until recently, Governor Dummer Academy. In July 2006 it changed to The Governor's Academy (the benefactor's surname sounded uncomfortably like "dumber," it was decided, and thus elicited predictable taunts during sport meets). Dummer's Georgian mansion remains a central feature of the school campus, now serving as the headmaster's residence.
  The towns of Dummer, New Hampshire and Dummerston, Vermont were also named in his honor.
caption: Dummer's house, now on the campus of The Governor's Academy
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