Author Topic: Robert Simms, United Irishmen - Gilliland Connection?  (Read 875 times)

Offline Gilby

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Robert Simms, United Irishmen - Gilliland Connection?
« on: Saturday 15 April 17 19:25 BST (UK) »
Hello,

Two of the founders of United Irishmen newspaper, the Northern Star, were brothers Robert Simms (c1761-1843) and William Simms (c1763-1843).  According to “Society and Manners in Early Nineteenth-Century Ireland” their father was a wealthy tanner.  Both brothers were arrested during the 1790s, though William was less involved than Robert, who was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the rebel army in Antrim in December 1797.

The below is (I believe) the death notice for Robert, though I haven’t found any contemporary references to his radical past:

Northern Whig, 27 Jun 1843   
At his house, in Franklin-place, on the 23d instant, Mr. Robert Simms, in the 83rd year of his age.  For upwards of thirty years, he discharged, with zealous attention to its interests, the duties of Assistant-Secretary to the Royal Belfast Academical Institution.

And I’m about 95% sure this was his marriage in 1786:

Saunders’s Newsletter, 14th Aug 1786   
MARRIED.] … Mr. Robert Simms, of Belfast, to Miss Gilliland, of Colin.

There are family graves in Clifton Street and Knockbreda which tell me Robert’s wife was called Mary, which fits with what I know of this Gilliland family.  However, the evidence is all circumstantial, so I’m hoping someone else has researched this and knows some further evidence to back it up?

Also I wonder if anyone knows who the parents of Robert and William Simms were?

Thanks,
Gilby