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A Biographical Dictionary of the Maryland Legislature 1635-1789 by Edward C. Papenfuse, et. al.
Volume 426, Page 737   View pdf image (33K)
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BIOGRAPHIES SIM

Mary Carroll, and second, in 1787, Ariana Hen-
derson; William; Joseph (?-by 1793); Anthony,
who married in 1790 Christiana Smith; and
Thomas. DAUGHTERS: Ann Addison (?-by 1793),
who married in 1779 Darby Ryon of Prince
George's County; Mary Brooke (?-ca. 1794), who
married in 1788 Roger Nelson (1759-1815), a
member of the Maryland House of Delegates from
Frederick County in 1792, 1793, 1800, 1801, and
1802, a member of the Maryland Senate, 1803-
1804, and a member of the U.S. Congress, 1804-
1810. STEPDAUGHTERS: Alice Corbin Thomson;
Mary-Lee Thomson. PRIVATE CAREER. EDUCA-
TION: literate. RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION: Anglican;
St. Paul's Parish, Prince George's County. SO-
CIAL STATUS AND ACTIVITIES: Gent., by 1749; Esq.,
by 1770; owned 2 horses, which he raced in Mary-
land, 1766-1774. OCCUPATIONAL PROFILE: of-

ficeholder; merchant, by 1762. Built a storehouse
in Upper Marlborough ca. 1765; in partnership
with his nephew Patrick Sim Smith (1749-ca. 1793)
in the firm of Sim & Smith, merchants of Fred-
erick County, by the early 1780s. Sim and Smith
were in financial difficulties by ca. 1790.

PUBLIC CAREER. LEGISLATIVE SERVICE: Lower

House, Prince George's County, 1771, 1773-1774
(Accounts 1, Cv, 2, 3; Arms and Ammunition 2,
3); Conventions, Prince George's County, 1st,
1774, 4th, 1775 (elected, but did not attend), 5th,
1775, 6th-8th, 1775-1776 (Claims 6th; did not
attend the 7th Convention); Senate, Western
Shore, Term of 1776-1781: 1779 (elected to the
3rd session of the 1778-1779 Assembly, qualified
on July 27, 1779), 1779-1780, 1780-1781 (did not
attend, resigned during the 2nd session of the
1780-1781 Assembly). OTHER PROVINCIAIL/STATE
OFFICES: justice, Provincial Court, commissioned
August 30, 1773; member of Executive Council,
1777 (elected on April 19, 1777, to fill vacancy;
reelected on November 11, 1777, but declined to
serve). LOCAL OFFICES: clerk, Prince George's
County Court, 1749-1767; churchwarden, St.
Paul's Parish, 1761, 1765, 1775; St. Paul's Parish
Vestry, Prince George's County, 1766-1775;
trustee, Charlotte Hall School, 1774; Committee
of Observation, Prince George's County, 1775;
commissioner of the tax, Frederick County, 1790;
Maryland Senate elector, Frederick County, 1791.
MILITARY SERVICE: major, by 1751; colonel, Prince
George's County Militia, appointed May 5, 1774;
colonel, llth Battalion, Prince George's County
Militia, 1776-1777 (resigned September 23, 1777).

STANDS ON PUBLIC/PRIVATE ISSUES: contributed

£500.0.0 current money and 4 hogsheads of to-
bacco to support the Revolutionary army, 1780.

WEALTH DURING LIFETIME. PERSONAL PROPERTY:

first wife's dower amounted to £500.0.0 sterling;
gave 12 slaves to his children in 1764, and 9 slaves
to his younger children in 1772; owned 34 slaves,
1790. LAND AT FIRST ELECTION: ca. 2,574 acres in
Prince George's and Frederick counties, plus 6
lots in Nottingham and 1 lot in Upper Marlbor-
ough (at least 2 lots in Nottingham and 855 acres
in Prince George's County inherited from his
mother's family; 452 acres and 5 lots in Prince
George's County by personal acquisition; 500 acres
in Frederick County received as a gift from his
first wife's father; 767 acres in Frederick County
by personal acquisition). SIGNIFICANT CHANGES

IN LAND BETWEEN FIRST ELECTION AND DEATH:

acquired an additional 767 acres in Frederick
County in 1773, which, with his previously pur-
chased 767 acres, gave him ownership of two thirds
of a 2,300-acre tract originally patented by his
first wife's Addison uncles in 1729. He bought 94
acres in Prince George's County and an addi-
tional 5 acres in Nottingham in 1774. During the
next four years Sim sold most of his Nottingham
lots and, finally, the lot and store in Upper Marl-
borough. He sold the land in Frederick County
acquired from his father-in-law in 1776. In 1778
he gave 1,000 acres of his 1,158-acre home plan-
tation in Prince George's County to his eldest son
Patrick, and the following year he gave 142 acres
to Patrick's infant son Joseph. In 1779 he pur-
chased 139 acres in Prince George's County, and
then sold this plus the 94 acres purchased in 1774
and the rest of his home plantation to his cousin
Thomas Contee (ca. 1729-1811). Sim bought a
586-acre tract in Prince George's County in 1779,
but sold it in 1781 and sold the remaining part of
his land in Nottingham in 1785. After his move
to Frederick County in 1781, Sim purchased 801
acres there plus 1 lot in Frederick Town, the con-
fiscated property of Daniel Dulany, of Daniel,
and Henry Addison. He actually received title to
only 444 acres of this land, of which 299 acres
were part of the remaining one-third of his Ad-
dison tract. He sold 4 acres in Frederick County
and the lot in Frederick Town in 1782 and 1787.
With Thomas Gantt, Jr. (?-1808), he received
title to 230 additional acres of the Addison tract,
which they had taken as security on a mortgage
in 1786. As his financial position worsened from
1789 to 1792, Sim sold the rest of his Frederick
County land bought as confiscated property. Fi-
nally, in October 1793, Sim agreed to resurvey
and sell his home plantation, consisting of about
1,511 acres of the Addison tract, in exchange for
the purchaser's satisfying all of the outstanding

737



 

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A Biographical Dictionary of the Maryland Legislature 1635-1789 by Edward C. Papenfuse, et. al.
Volume 426, Page 737   View pdf image (33K)
 Jump to  
  << PREVIOUS  NEXT >>


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