Compiled by Almon James Sims, Agricultural Extension Editor, College of Agriculture., University of Tennessee, 1948, from data secured in research and study-of family bibles, records and histories of Scotland, England, Ireland, and American Colonial days, in the Library of Congress , Washington, D. C., and old letters, records and oral information secured from members of the family throughout the country.

     The name of SIMS or SIMMS, anciently SYM, SYMS, SYME, SYMES, SYMME, SYMMES, SYMES, SIM, SIMM, SIME, SIMES, SIMMES, and SEMMES, is attributed to several origins, the most common and seemingly authentic being from SYM clan of Yetholm Tower or Castle, also written Yetheram, Yeththorp, Withram, Wythrop, Roxburgh County, Scotland, of the ninth century.
     The meaning of the name SYM in Celtic Gaelic is Peacemaker. The Norman is given as Sixth. The name has also been attributed to Old Saxon, meaning Shelf of Cornice; designating perhaps a clan of people living on a high place or Highlands of Scotland, such as Roxburgh County, in ancient times.
     Another definition says the name is Saxon, derived from Simeon, the second son of Jacob, just as the names - Davidson and Davis are derived from David; Johnson from John; Robertson from Robert - meaning son of Simeon, David, John Robert, etc. No doubt some of the English branches of the name originated in this way, but exhaustive study convinces the writer that the branches of the family in America claiming Scotch-Irish ancestry originated from SYM clan of Yetholm, Roxburgh County, Scotland.
     The most common form of spelling the name today is SIMS and SIMMS, although several other forms, as given above, are still used by some branches of the family,
     Most common Christian or first names down through the centuries have been John, William, Robert, Joseph, Matthew, James, Thomas, Henry, Edward, Richard, Samuel and David.

     Several branches of the Sims family have Coats-of-Arms, clan or family flags, or banners, which were worn on armor in war and on State occasion in Ancient times.
     The Coat-of-Arms shown on the cover of this Family History was granted to the family of John Sims in England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth in 1592 and is used by most of the families tracing their ancestry back to Ireland, Scotland and Yetholm, the ancient home of the SYM clan.

ARMS - Ermine, which is the emblem of purity of judges and magistrates.
     Three Crescents, pointing to the dexter (right) side when worn on armor - meaning: increasing or waxing strong.
     Red lines on Crescents denotes bravery.
CREST - Demi - Griffin - half eagle - half lions denoting, swiftness, strength and bravery.
MOTTO - In Justitia Virtutes Omnes (All Virtue is in Justice).

     Yetholm, name of the Tower or Castle, ancient home of the SYM clan, means the beginning or opening, a hill, high place, a place name in common use In the old country, indicating perhaps the beginning or home place of a clan or family.
     The use of Tower or Castle with the name indicated that the SYM clan had a fortified place for protection from other plans or enemies. In 1944 I talked with an Agricultural teacher from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, who told me that the ruins of Yetholm are still standing and that he had observed them while doing Extension work for the University in the area a year or two before coming to America.
     Roxburgh County, in which the ruins of Yetholm Tower are located joins Edinburgh County, Scotland, in which the city of Edinburgh is located, on the North and Cumberland and Northumberland countics England on the South. It is rugged, hilly, mountainous country with many streams. Sheep production and woolen mills have afforded the chief occupation in more recent years.
     Scottish clans, of which the SYM clan was one, were of Celtic origin, migrating iron, Ireland to Scotland about 200 years before Christ to conquer the Picts, an early race then inhabiting the country at that time. From Ireland, the Celts are traced back through the centuries as a strong people once predominating in what is now known as Central Europe. They were fierce in war and greatly feared by other peoples. Their early enemy was the Germans-Saxons who finally drove them out of Central Europe into England, Ireland and Scotland.
     Many historians say the Celts are a branch of the Ancient Ayran race, an off shoot of the Cimmerians or Scythians of Antiquity who inhabited the land North of the Black Sea, now Roumania. This is the land Bible History says the tribes of Gomer, a son of Japeth who was one of the sons of Noah, inhabited after the Flood. If this be true, the SYM Clan, Celtic line traces back through the centuries to Adam and the beginning of man on earth - - - - why not?
     From Yetholm the SYM Clan spread in early days to Dumfries, Edinburgh and other counties in Scotland; to Cumberland, York, Berks, Bedford, Chester, Kent and other counties in England; to Wexford and Wicklow counties in Southern Ireland and to Northern Ireland around Belfast with the "Scotch-Presbyterian" movement under King James I of England, in what is known as the Ulster Settlement of 1607 - 1611.
     From the Ulster Settlement or Province around Belfast, Ireland came most of the so-called Scotch-Irish settlers of Pennsylvania, Virginia, North and South Carolina, Tennessee and other States.
     The writer has traced the four principal branches of the family in this country and all lead back to Yetholm which indicated that most of the families bearing the SIMS name trace back to the SYM Clan founded some time in the dim past prior to 1066 at Yetholm, Roxburgh County, Scotland.

     The earliest clan or family record located by the writer is that of Bueth Sym of Yetholm who was killed in Cumberland County England, during the Conquest of England by William the Conqueror in 1066. His son Bueth Sym the Second, fled back to Yetholm in Scotland.
     Clifford Stanley Sins, Jr., of New York City, son of Clifford Stanley Sims, Mt. Holly, New Jersey, and Mary Josephine Abercrombie of Memphis, Tennessee, where the family lived for a time - there and in Arkansas, published a history "The Sims Family" in 1926, which is in the Library of Congress, Washington, D. C., and which traces his branch of the family back to Bueth Sym of Yetholm as follows:

1. - Sym of head of Yetholm Roxburgh County, Scotland, married Ada, granddaughter of Oswulfe, Earl of Northumberland and Thane of Gillis Land, Cumberland County, England.
2. - Bueth Sym, son of Sym and Thane of Gillis Land, was killed during the Conquest of England by William the Conqueror, 1066.
3. - Bueth Sym, Jr., fled back to Yetholm in Scotland.
4. - Bueth Sym Third, lived at Yetholm 1100 to 1135.
5. - John Sym, received grant of land in Dumfries County, Scotland from Malcolm 4th, 1165.
6. - Thomas Sym.
7. - William Sym, 1191.
8. - William Sym.
9. - John Sym.
10. - John Sym.
11. - William Sym.
12. - Joseph Sym of Sandbeck House, Dumfries County, Scotland.
13. - John Sym, Sandbeck House held lands in Cumberland County, England, 1414; married Elizabeth Martindale, daughter and heiress of William Martindale and grand-daughter of Roger Martindale and his wife, the daughter of Thomas De Newton.
14. - John Sym of Sandbeck House.
15. - John Sym.
16. - Thomas Syme of Newton, married Annie, daughter and heiress of Nicholas Martindale of Culthram Holme, Cumberland County, England.
17. - Thomas Sym of Newton, born 1580, married 1618 to Anne, daughter and heiress of John Brisco of Wampool and Dorothy Falcon, heiress of the Falcons of Nook Tower and of the Connells of Allonby, Cumberland County, England. Died 1650.
18. - William Sym of Allonby, died 1669. His children changed the spelling of the name from Sym to Sim in early 1600.
19. - Rev. John Sim, third son of William Sym held lands in Newton and married Anne Osmotherly.
20. - Lancelot Sim, second son of Rev. John was churchwarden of Aspatria, 1687; married Hannah ________ who died May 12, 1723. He died July 26, 1712.
21. - Daniel Sim, of West Newton, second child of Lancelot, baptized December 26, 1695, married twice: First, Sarah Dobinson, May 29, 1723 - she died September 22, 1725; Second marriage ________ Elanor Coulthard. He was churchwarden of Aspatria 1731 - 1732.
22. - Lancelot Simm, second son of Daniel Sim and Elanor Coulthard (Note addition of extra M to name). His three brothers, John, Joshua and Joseph, and sisters Anne, Isabelle, Jane, Sarah, and Mary continued to spell their names Sim.) Lancelot was baptized January 9, 1732; married Annie Fletcher of Birk Bank January 1, 1769; died August 6, 1789; lived at Cockermouth, Cumberland County, England, on the Solway Firth. His wife was born in 1741, died December 23, 1787.
23. - John Simm, oldest son of Lancelot Simm, born October 24, 1769, migrated from Cockermouth, Cumberland County, England to Uniontown, Pennsylvania, Fayette County, in 1793 and changed the spelling of the name from Simm to Sims., Died July 9. 1821. He married twice in America; 1st, Sarah Simpson, No Children. 2nd, Mary Neale, of Burlington, New Jersey, July 18, 1797. She was born June 29, 1774; died February 10, 1867. Sons of John Sims and Mary Neale were:
         (1) Dr. William Neale Sims, Smicksburgh, Pa; born 1798; died 1872; married Margaret McKean.
         (2) Thomas Neale Sims, born October 17, 1800; married Louisa Vonuxon Clark. They were parents of Alfred William Sims who married Adelaide Snowden who were the parents of Admiral William Snowden Sims of the U. S. Navy and First World War (1917-1918) fame.
         (3) John Clarke Sims.
         (4) Lancelot Fletcher Sims.
         There were six daughters, including one set of twins, one of the few found in Sims Family History.
24. - John Clarke Sims, born February 11, 1807 in Philadelphia, third son of John Sims and Mary Neale, married Emeline Marion Clark, December 8, 1830. He died December 18, 1882.
25. - Clifford Stanley Sims, born February 17, 1839, Mt Holly, New Jersey, second son of John C. and Emeline M. Sims. He married Mary Josephine Abercrombie of Memphis, Tennessee., August 2, 1865.
26. - Clifford Stanley Sims, Jr., of New York City, born January 12, 1868; married Martha Jenkins, December 8, 1909. One Child:
27. - Martha Lee Jenkins Sims of Now York City, born August 31, 1910.

     Thus we have a record of 27 generations, covering 875 years, in the Bueth Sym - Clifford Sims family history from Yetholm to America. I have given only the direct line. Large families were the rule, families of ten to twelve children not being uncommon.

     Other names of record in England are Robert and Thomas Symmes of Yorkshire (York County) 1379; John Symme, bailiff (a deputy sheriff) in the city of Canterbury, Kent County, September 14, 1392
     The principal seat of the Sims Family in central England was around Daventry in Northamptonshire County from, where they spread into surrounding counties and to Southern Ireland. In Baker's History of Northamptonshire it is mentioned that the Church of Daventry which is ten miles west of Northampton, contained at the cast end of the south aisle upon a blue stone, the statues of a man and his wife, with the following inscription on a brass plate: "For the solle of William Symmes and his wife, which William departed this life June, A.D. 1547." Underneath are figures of five sons and five daughters.
     John Sims was a Baptist minister, who preached at Hampton in England about 1646. An Act of parliament had been passed against unordained ministers, (those not ordained by the Church of England) in virtue of which he was apprehended while on a journey to Taunton and some letters which he was to deliver to pious friends were taken from him, and he was examined in court for preaching without being ordained, and for denying infant baptism.

     The Irish branch of the Sims Family of Wexford and Wicklow counties, Southern Ireland, as distinguished from the Scotch-Irish (Scotch Presbyterians) of Northern Ireland, the ancestors of the Scotch-Irish settlers in America, was from the Northamptonshire, England family settling there around 1668. 'They settled .first in Wexford and spread to Wicklow County. It was from this family known as the Symeses of Ballyarther, or more briefly, of Bayley, that Col. Michael Symes, who headed a British embassy to India in 1795, came. Upon his return to England he wrote a book "An Account of the Embassy to Ava.", which afforded much light on India about which little was known at that time.
     Jeremiah Symes, a younger son of the Northamptonshire family, seems to have been the founder to the Irish family in Wexford, he having received a grant of lands in Middleton for faithful services from William III. His wife was Barbara Payne, an English woman, sister of the private secretary of James II. His son John Symes lived in Coolboy and John's son was Rev. Abraham Symes, a famous minister of Ireland around 1700. So much for the Southcrn Ireland branch of the family. More about the Northern Ireland Scotch-Presbyterians later.

The earliest record of a Sims family in America that I have been able to locate is that of the Rev. Zechariah Symmes, of the Northamptonshire, England, who arrived in Boston with his wife and seven children on the ship Griffin, September 18, 1634, and became pastor of a church at Charleston, Massachusetts, which then included much of what is now Winchester, Massachusetts, about 8 miles from Boston. The city of Charleston Cave him a farm, still known as the Symmes farm and out of which a part of Winchester was formed. Some of the tam is said to still be in the hands Of members of the family.
     "The Symmes Memorial" a family history covering 10 generations of this family from about 1550 to 1869 was published by John Adams Vinton, a decendant, in 1873, copy of which is in the Library of Congress, Washington, D. C., and a copy of which is in the hands of the writer, having been secured by him in an old book store in Washington in 1938.
     Rev. Zechariah Symmes, son of Rev. William, contemporary and friend of Cotton Lather of England, and grandson of William Symmes of the Northamptonshire, England, was born at Canterbury, Kent County, England, April 5, 1599.
     He was educated at Emanuel College and the University of Cmbridge, graduating in 1620 and the next year was a lecturer at St. Anthony, or antholine's in the city of London. Being frequently harassed by persecutions in the Bishop's Court for his nonconformity, he removed to dunstable, Bedford County, in 1625, where as rector he continued in the ministry for 8 years. Still annoyed by prosecutions, however, he determined to remove to America, arriving in Boston, with his wife and. seven children September 18, 1634, on the ship Griffin, to establish what is believed to be the first Sims family in America.

     Raphael Thomas Semmes published a history of "The Semmes and Allied Families" in 1918 in which gives the decendants of Marmaduke Semmes who supposedly came from England and settled in Maryland some time prior to 1662. It is known that he transported himself and got a warrant of 50 acres of land for so doing. In 1662 he was appointed doorkeeper for the Upper House of Maryland. He married Mrs. Fortune Medford, widow of Bulmer Medford who came over from England in 1664. Hissons were Anthony, James, John and Marmaduke. Anthony lived in Charles County, Maryland. For furthur information on this family see the family history, "The Semmes and Allied Families," in the Library of Congress, Washington, D. C.

     The first record found of the family in Virginia is that of Andrew Sims who settled at Williamsburg in 1635. Matthew Sims of Somerset, England settled in Hanover County, Virginia in 1700. He had a nephew who was known as James River Matt; another known as Roanoke Matt; and Alexander Dromgoole Sims, a congressman. A John Sims died in Virginia in 1716. Arsley Sims was buried in Hanover County August 16, 1713. George Olive married Mary Sims, November 25, 1736,

     Christine 0. Atwell, Cazenovia, N. Y. in a manuscript "SIMS FAMILY RECORDS", in the Library of Congress, Washington, D. C. gives a rather complete history of the Benjamin Sims family. He was born in Scotland and came to Jamestown, Va., prior to 1675. He had a son, John Sims, born Sept. 14, 1675 at Jamestown who married Martha Fairbanks. John moved with his family to what is now Lebanon, Conn., in 1699 and he and his wife are buried at Andover, Conn., in what is known as the Sims Burying ground. The family which was extensive remained in that area until after the Revolution when a branch of it settled at Cazenovia, N. Y.
     It is believed that the town of Simsbury, Conn., received its name from a member of this branch of the family.

     Many of the branches of the Sims family in America, particularly of the Southern States refer to their ancestry as Scotch-Irish. There is no evidence that the Scotch-Irish branches of the Sims family in America ware ever very firmly rooted in Ireland. Generally speaking, the Scotch-Irish were Scotsmen who migrated first to Ireland and thence to this country, impelled by religious persecutions, being staunch protestants and Presbyterians from an early day. James I of England (Sixth of Scotland) settled Scotch-Presbyterians in Northern Ireland, (Ulster Settlement of 1607-1611) hoping thus to turn that country from Catholicism. After a century of conflict with a barren soil, revolutions and unfriendly surroundings most of the settlers were as poor as when they began, and the native Irish were, no whit less Catholic, says John Spencer Bassett in his history, "A Short History of the United States."
     Some of the Scotts had, however, prospered in the Ulster Province during the reign of King James but when Charles the First took the throne of England their troubles commenced. Landowners of England asked the King and parliament to prohibit Irish cattle being shipped to England. This ruined the cattle business for the Ulsterites. They then turned their attention to sheep raising and the manufacture of woolen goods. Manufacturers of England then had parliament to place a tariff on goods shipped from Ireland. This tariff ruined the wool business and many of the Ulsterites migrated to New England.
     Again under Cromwell and William of Orange and Queen Anne, the Scotts in Ireland prospered, 'out when the throne of England was transferred to the House of Hanover their religious freedom was taken from them, they having established the Presbyterian Church. Then came the great migration of the Scotts and Irish to America.
     The liberal policy of William Penn had turned the descendants of the Scotch-Presbyterians toward America. Seasoned by their experiences in Ireland, they made the best of frontiersmen in America, where both natural and human environment was more favorable than in Ireland. They began to come to Pennsylvania in considerable numbers in the early 1700's settling in Lancaster County and to the west of it as far as Pittsburgh. From 1725 to 1760 over 200,000 came over. They scattered into New Jersey, Maryland Virginia and North and South Carolina.
     By 1760 another stream of these Scotch-Irish, coming in from the Charleston, South Carolina Port, began filling up the valleys and uplands of the Carolinas. The sons of these immigrants, still loving the pioneer life with its perils and its reqards, passed over the Alleghanies and laid the foundation of the States of Tennessee and Kentucky. Of this stock came Andrew Jackson, John C. Calhoun, David Crockett, Daniel Boone and many other important leaders.
     With this wave of Scotch-Irish, mostly Scotsmen who had been transplanted to Ulster in Ireland by James I of England, came the ancestors of most of the branches of the Sims family in the Southern States from 1700 to 1760 - stopping briefly in Pennsylvania, they spread down the Southern Appalachians into Virginia and the Carolinas and over the Alleghanies into Tennessee, Kentucky, Northern Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Ohio, Indiana, and later into Arkansas, Missouri, Texas and Oklahoma.

     When the first United States census was taken in 1790 there were 111 Sims families located in the following counties of North and South Carolina and Virginia.
     North Carolina, 39 families in Stokes, Dobbs, Bertie, Wayne, Wake, Cumberland, Edgecombe, Johnston, Rockingham, Warren, Rowan, Caswell, Surray, Beaufort, Rutherford, Brunswick, Northampton and Halifax counties. Twenty-two of the 39 families were located in Wake, Cumberland, Wayne, Johnston and Warren counties.
     South Carolina, 35 families located in Laurens, Union, Newberry, Fairfield, Lancaster, Chester, Dorchester, Greenville, Abbeville, Spartanburg, Prince George and Richland counties. Sixteen of the 35 families were located in Laurens, Fairfield and Lancaster counties.
     Virginia, 37 families located in Fairfax, Northumbcrland, Halifax, Charlotte, Cumberland, Hanover, Hampshire, Monongalia and Stafford counties. Nineteen of the 37 families were in Halifax and Hanover counties.
     Most of the families were large and about half of them were slave owners, among the largest holders being Joseph Simms of Edgecombe County, N. C., 27 slaves; Leonard Simms, Warren County, N. C., 36; Charles Sims, Union County, S. C., 22; Matthew Sims, Newberry County, S. C., 24; James Sims, Union County, S.C., 33; Matthew Sims, Halifax County, Va., 26; David Sims, same county, 29; William Sims, same county, 18. No families of the name were listed in the Territory of Tennessee which was considered a part of North Carolina at that time.
     A majority of the families spelled the name with one M, and most of them were Presbyterians.

     Virginia and North and South Carolina records show that many of the Sims were soldiers in the American Revolution, some directly under General George Washington's command as officers, some of high rank.
     Among these was Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Sims of the 106th Regiment, Virginia Militia, officer on General Washington's staff and one of the pall bearers at his funeral as shown by an inscription at the door of Christ Church, Alexandria.. Va., a city of which Col. Sims was once time mayor.
     Others were Lieutenant James Sims of Maryland, Ensign John Sims of Pennsylvania and Lieutenant William Sims of the same State, Captain Johnathan Sims of Virginia and many others including Pariss (Parish) Sims, the ancestor of the writer and extensive Sims families of Middle Tennessee and several western States, as described later in this history of the family.
     According to a letter written by his grand-son Attorney Robert W. Sims of Gadsden, Crockett County, Tennessee in 1903, which the writer now has, Pariss served eight years in the Revolutionary War and was one of General Washington's Life Guards - member of his body guard company. He also said he had heard his grandfather tell of being with Washington at Valley Forge and Crossing the Delaware with him.
     Among others of the family who have distinguished themselves are:

John Cleves Cymmes (1742-1814) of New Jersey, soldier, vice-Governor of Jersey, Member of State Supreme Court and member of U. S. Congress, 1786-1788.

William Gilmore Simms of South Carolina, noted writer and novelist, 1806-1870.

Dr. James Marion Sims, born in Lancaster., S. C., in 1813, founded a hospital in Montgomery, Ala., in .1848, practiced medicine there 1835-1852. Founded hospital for women in New York in 1853. Chief of medical staff in Sedan and decorated for several publications including "History of my Life," edited by H. M. Sims. A nonument stands in a park in New York City to his memory and his service to mankind.

He is referred to in old letters as a relative of the Pariss Sims family and the writer is of the opinion that he was a grandson of Abraham Sims, a brother of Pariss and Robert who came to America shortly before the American Revolution. (See Pariss Sims fine).

Lt. Col. William E. Simms, of Kentucky, Captain in Mexican War, Lt. Col. Ky. Cavalry, Confederate Army, member 36th. U. S. Congress and the Confederate Congress.

Winifred Scott Sims of New York, inventor, 1844-1918.

Admiral William Snowden Sims of Pennsylvania and Canada, Admiral U. S. Navy of First World War fame. (See Bueth Sym line).

Hon. John Sims, U. S. Congressman from Kentucky.

Hon. Alexander Dromgoole Sims, U. S. Congressman from South Carolina from 1840-1848.

Hon. Leonard He Sims, U. S. Congressman from Springfield, Missouri, 1845-1848.

Hon. Thetus Willrette Sims, Wayne County, Tennessee, Congressman from Lexington, Seventh Tennessee District, March 4, 1897 to March 4, 1921. (See Pariss Sims line).

     Many of the family have held state offices, members of State Legislatures, county offices, county judges, trustees, and have otherwise been leaders in their respective communities, counties and states.
     More of the name have achieved recognition as doctors, lawyers and writers than in other professions. For the most part, however, members of the family have been farmers, merchants, and lawyers, raised large families, been honest, hardworking and upright citizens of moderate moms -neither poor nor rich. Some few however, have accumulated substantial wealth.
     The decendants of the early Sims families in America have spread to practically every State in the Union and have aided as much in the growth of the country as their ancestors aided in the founding of the Nation. They have been noted for their energy, industry, ambition, integrity, perseverance, fortitude, loyalty, resourcefulness, courage and leadership, and defense of conviction.
     Many instances of prosecution for religious conviction and loyalty to principle are on record - none for serious offense against law and order was found. There is evidence that some races, families and persons, "not of the true vine" who have adopted or used the name, have been of no credit to it. On the whole, however, he who bears the name has a worthy heritage - something to be proud of and uphold.

Sims Books   Introduction   Part I   Part II   Part III

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