William Hyslop Sumner Burgwyn was born on January 22, 1886, in Northampton County, North Carolina. A lawyer by training, Burgwyn served several terms as a state legislator in both the house and senate, as solicitor from 1932 to 1937, and as superior court judge from 1937 until his death in 1977. In 1917, he served on a joint legislative committee charged with investigating the condition of the state's prison system. He died in Raleigh on January 24, 1977.