Henry FitzSimon

Alfred Webb

A Compendium of Irish Biography

1878

FitzSimon, Henry, Rev., was born in Dublin about 1569, of Protestant parents. After matriculating at Oxford, he travelled on the Continent, where he became a Jesuit. On his return to Ireland he was soon involved in religious disputations, and was committed to Dublin Castle. There, we are told, he expressed a desire for exercising his logical faculties — declaring that, "as he was a prisoner, he was like a bear tied to a stake, and wanted somebody to bate him." Ussher, then only in his nineteenth year, took up the gauntlet and proved an able adversary. This was in 1599. On gaining his liberty he travelled on the Continent, and then returned to Ireland. "He was a great abetter and encourager of the rebellion in 1641; but when the rebels began to be subdued, he was obliged to fly for shelter into woods and mountains, and to skulk from place to place; until at last he died miserably on the 1st of February 1643." He was the author of several controversial works.

Sources

339. Ware, Sir James, Works: Walter Harris. 2 vols. Dublin, 1764.

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