Marine Intelligence — Schooner Sally, Thomas Fitz-Simons, master (South-Carolina Gazette, 12 July 1760)
Book 4, Page 24 ·1760
Transcription
The full Marine Intelligence column is preserved below; the FitzSimons-relevant entry is the fifth line of the “Arrivals from this Place” section near the foot of the column.
MARINE Intelligence.
July — Arrivals at Charles-Town.
Date Vessel Master From 8th Scooner Fanny Lambert Tree Providence Scooner Polly William Davis Providence 9th Ship Anne Galley Joseph Webb Goree Snow Race-Horse John Barker Africa Scooner Rachel & Mary Jacob Waldron Cape-Fear Brigt. Charming-Hester John Hamilton Africa 12th Sloop Nancy & Becky Jeremiah Burrows Jamaica Scooner Screven Thomas McLeish Providence Scooner Anne — Georgia Scooner — — Teneriffe July — Sailed since our last.
Date Vessel Master For 7th Brigt. St. Peter John Bond Bristol Snow Patty Robert Nixon New-York Brigt. Spy William Lyford Jamaica 8th Ship Richard & Robert William Butson Oporto 9th Ship Monro John Glasford Glasgow Snow Betsey Edward Cain North-Carolina 10th Sloop Royal Fancy John Howell New-York Remain Windbound.
Vessel Master For Ship Pitt Benjamin Harriot St. Kitts Brigt. Aletta John Lightenstone Philadelphia Brigt. Two Sisters John Downer Rhode-Island Scooner Hannah David Drummond Georgia Ship St. Andrew Isaiah Moatt London Near loaded, or may sail next Week.
Vessel Master For Snow Polly and Betsey William Muir London Ship Elizabeth James Smith London Scooner William & Katharine Joseph Frith New-York Arrivals from this Place.
Vessel Master (Destination) Ship Live-Oak James Adam Jamaica Scooner Dolphin Charles Smyth (Providence) Sloop Charming-Nancy Edmund Rutland (Providence) Scooner Cherry John Wiltshire (Providence) Scooner Margaret James Haig (Providence) Scooner Sally Thomas Fitz-Simons (Providence) Brigt. Greyhound Richard Warner Cape-Fear
Source: The South-Carolina Gazette (Charleston, S.C.), Saturday, 12 July 1760, page 3. Image from newspapers.com, image 605076501. Public-domain newspaper. The source PDF is archived in this repository under additionalDocumentation/The_South_Carolina_Gazette_1760_07_12_3.pdf.
AI Notes
The South-Carolina Gazette, Saturday 12 July 1760, page 3 — the regular Marine Intelligence column, listing Charleston harbor arrivals, departures, ships windbound, ships preparing to sail, and ships ‘Arrived from this Place’ (i.e., Charleston-cleared vessels confirmed arrived at their destinations, news of which had returned to Charleston). In the ‘Arrived from this Place’ section appears: ‘Scooner Sally, Thomas Fitz-Simons’ — destination Providence (Nassau, Bahamas) via the grouped curly-brace. This is the earliest known FitzSimons reference in Charleston-area print, predating the emigrant Christopher FitzSimons’s 1782-uncle’s known activity by 22 years. Thomas Fitz-Simons is the master/captain of the schooner Sally, in 1760 trading between Charleston and the Bahamas — a typical lowcountry-Caribbean route. Whether Thomas is a relative of the emigrant Christopher (b. 1762) is unestablished; the surname was not uncommon among Irish-immigrant families on the American coast in the mid-18th century. He is unlikely to be the famous Philadelphia signer Thomas FitzSimons (1741–1811), who arrived in America from Ireland only in 1758 and would have been about 19 — too young for a sea-captain’s ticket. A separate Charleston Thomas Fitz-Simons is more probable, possibly an Irish-immigrant brother or cousin of the 1761-Tradd-Street Christopher Fitz-Simons chandler (see book-004/025) and the future emigrant Christopher’s uncle. Worth cross-checking against the 1760s ship-registration books and Customs Service records. The ‘Fitz-Simons’ spelling (hyphenated, single-m ‘Simons’) matches the South Carolina convention of the period.
“Arrivals from this Place” means: vessels that had cleared Charleston earlier and were now reported (via returning shipping news) to have arrived safely at their stated destinations. Thomas Fitz-Simons’s Scooner Sally had therefore made a successful Charleston→Nassau passage some weeks before July 12, 1760. The destinations are grouped in a curly brace in the original (Live-Oak → Jamaica solo; the next five vessels → Providence as a group; Greyhound → Cape-Fear solo).
Identification of Thomas Fitz-Simons. His relationship (if any) to the emigrant Christopher FitzSimons (b. Dundalk 27 Dec 1762) and to the emigrant’s Charleston uncle Christopher (the 1761-Tradd-Street chandler at book-004/025) is unestablished. Possibilities: an Irish-immigrant brother or cousin of the uncle Christopher; an unrelated Thomas Fitz-Simons sailing under that name; or — least likely — the future Philadelphia signer Thomas FitzSimons (1741–1811), who would have been only about 19 in 1760 and is not known to have been a sea-captain. The South Carolina Historical Society’s ship-registration books and the published “Marine Disasters of the Carolina Coast” series may carry further mentions of the Scooner Sally and its master under this name.