Typewritten notes on FitzSimons-Alston, with O'Callaghan-FitzSimons monument transcription and family lines
Book 1, Page 23 ·1744–1886
Transcription
A typewritten sheet. The header line reads:
FitzSimons MS in Motte Alston Read’s Notes in S. C. Historical Society.
Two short subheading lines:
FitzSimons- Alston.
O’Callaghan- FitzSimons, pp. 73-74.
The body:
Copy of old family record part of which is on monument in Croggan Church-yard, County Armagh, Ireland.
The monument is erected in memory of Owen O’Callaghan of Coulerville or Colloville, deceased of this parish, and his family. His grandfather of the same name, Owen, together with a younger brother, Daniel originally of Co. Clare followed the fortune of the 2nd James to France where becoming the friend of the Lord Bellew, who was possessed of large estates in that neighborhood and whose sister married Daniel O’ Callaghan, their property in Co. Clare having been forfeited they were led by circumstances to settle in this part of the country.
They were also accompanied by the McCan, proprietor of the district of M[o]ntescand, whose property had also been confiscated. Owen, the elder, of the brothers married Mary Lynn. They had several children, the first was James who married Cicely McCan grand-daughter of the McCan of Mestescand only daughter of his son Henry. They had several children. Owen of Colloville, or Colleville who married Margaret eldest daughter of John Carolan. Said Owen born in 1744, died 4th August 1803. Owen and Daniel (first names) the two brothers, were on the staff of James 2nd at the battle of the Boyne and followed him to France.
Katherine O’ Callaghan was the daughter of James who married Cecily McCan (sic). Her brother James of Couleville(sic) took her son Christopher FitzSimons after the death of his parents and reared him with his own family. He was born in Dundalk, Co. L[o]uth, Ireland, December 27, 1762. He emigrated to So. Ca. with some property and was married August 3rd, 1788 to Katherine, Daughter of Paul and Ann Pritchard, the vessel on which he came having put into Hobeau [uncertain], Mr. Pritchard’s place for repairs, he early made the friendship of this gentleman’s family. Died 1825.
Their children were:
Cashel born 1790 died 1808
Ann (Mrs. Hampton) born 1794 died 1833
Paul born 1800 died 1840
Christopher born 1802 died 1832
Katherine (Mrs. Hammond) born 1814 died—
Ann married Col. Wade Hampton in 1817.
Their children were:
Wade born 1818
Christopher FitzSimons born 1821
Harriet born 1823 died
Katherine born 1824
Ann born 1826
Caroline born 1828
Frank born 1829 killed in battle
Elizabeth FitzSimons born 1831 died 1886
Mary Fisher born 1833 died
Paul FitzSimons married Ellen White of Augusta, Georgia.
Their children were:
Owen born 1828
Mary Ann born 1830
Edward born 1832
George born 1834
Hampton born 1836
Ann born 1838
Katherine born 1840
AI Notes
A typewritten sheet headed ‘FitzSimons MS in Motte Alston Read’s Notes in S. C. Historical Society.’ Subheaded ‘FitzSimons-Alston. / O’Callaghan-FitzSimons, pp. 73-74.’ Transcribes part of an old family record (from a monument in Croggan Church-yard, County Armagh, Ireland) erected to Owen O’Callaghan, recounting the O’Callaghan family’s flight from Co. Clare to France with the 2nd James, intermarriages with McCan and Carolan, the birth and emigration of Christopher FitzSimons to South Carolina in 1762, and his marriage to Catherine Pritchard. Lists the children of Christopher and Catherine, then the children of Ann (Mrs. Wade Hampton), then the children of Paul FitzSimons and Ellen Nesbit White. The typescript carries several variant spellings — ‘Hobeau’ (for Hobcaw), ‘Mntescand’/‘Mestescand’, ‘Couleville(sic)’, and ‘Cecily McCan (sic)’. Notable cross-document discrepancy: this typescript gives Elizabeth FitzSimons Hampton’s lifespan as born 1831 died 1886 — Mabel’s 1960 letter on p016 gave it as 1831-1866. Without a third source the discrepancy is unresolved; the 1886 reading gives her 55 years, the 1866 reading 35. The typescript also says Christopher (the emigrant)'s arrival vessel ‘put into Hobeau, Mr. Pritchard’s place for repairs’ — a maritime origin story for the FitzSimons-Pritchard connection that parallels the wreck-and-rescue legend in Philip Henry Eve’s 1959 letter (p013), but differs in mechanism.
The Croggan Churchyard monument in County Armagh transcribed here is the album’s primary source for the maternal O’Callaghan ancestry. Owen and Daniel O’Callaghan (the brothers named at top) followed deposed Catholic king James II to France after their defeat at the Battle of the Boyne on 1 July 1690 — putting Christopher the emigrant only three generations removed from the original Jacobite “Wild Geese” exile. Their property in Co. Clare had been forfeited; the McCan family who accompanied them had similarly lost their Montescand district to confiscation.