Maine Henry James Sumnee

Maine, Henry James Sumnee, Sir (1822-1881), was educated at Christ's Hospital and Pembroke College, Cambridge, gaining the Craven Scholarship and the Chancellor's Medal, and being Senior Classic and a Senior Optime. After being elected fellow and tutor of Trinity Hall, he was appointed (1847) Regius Professor of Civil Law. In 1850 he was called to the bar, and in 1854 became reader in jurisprudence at the Middle Temple. In 1862 he went to India as member of the Law Council, and 1870 became professor of Comparative Jurisprudence at Oxford. In 1871 he was on the Council of the Secretary for India, and was made K.C.S.I., in 1877 he became Master of Trinity Hall, and in 1887 Whewell Professor of International Law. He is best known generally for his valuable contributions to the knowledge of early societies, his most noted works being Ancient Law (1861), Village Communities (1871), and Early Law and Custom (1883).