Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 19.djvu/215

  ‘Sailing Directions for South America,’ 1848.  ‘Barometer and Weather Guide,’ 1858.  ‘Passage Table and General Sailing Directions,’ 1859.  ‘Barometer Manual,’ 1861. He was also the author of official reports to the board of trade (1857–65), of occasional papers in the ‘Journal of the Royal Geographical Society’—of which society he was for several years a member of council—and in the ‘Journal of the Royal United Service Institution.’



FITZSIMON, HENRY (1566–1643), jesuit, born at Dublin on 31 May 1566, was son of Nicholas Fitzsimon, an alderman or ‘senator’ of that city, by his wife Anne, sister of Christopher Sidgreaves of Inglewight, Lancashire. At the age of ten he was ‘inveigled into heresy,’ and afterwards he studied grammar, humanities, and rhetoric for four years at Manchester. He matriculated at Oxford, as a member of Hart Hall, on 26 April 1583. ‘In December following,’ says Wood, ‘I find one Henry Fitz-Simons, to be elected student of Christ Church, but whether he be the same with the former, I dare not say.’ It does not appear how long he continued at Oxford, nor whether he took a degree. In 1587 he became a student in the university of Paris. At this period he imagined that he was ‘ able to convert to Protestancie any encounterer whatsoever;’ but at length he was overcome in argument by Father [q. v.], nephew of Bishop Bonner, and was reconciled to the catholic church. After his conversion he appears to have visited Rome. He went to the university of Pont-à-Mousson before the close of 1587, and studied rhetoric for one year, philosophy for three years, from 1588 to 1591, and took the degree of M.A., after which he read theology for three months at Pont-à-Mousson, and for seven weeks at Douay, privately studying casuistry at the same time. He took minor orders, was admitted into the Society of Jesus by Father Manæreus, the provincial of Flanders, and began his noviceship at Tournay on 15 or 26 April 1592. On 2 June 1593 he was sent to pursue his theological studies at Louvain under Father Leonard Lessius, and while there he also formed an intimate acquaintance with Father Rosweyde and Dr. Peter Lombard. He so distinguished himself that he was appointed to the chair of philosophy in the university of Douay.

Being sent, at his own earnest petition, to the Irish mission, he reached Dublin late in 1597. Wood states that ‘he endeavoured to reconcile as many persons as he could to his religion, either by private conference or public disputes with protestant ministers. In which work he persisted for two years without disturbance, being esteem'd the chief disputant among those of his party, and so ready and quick that few or none would undertake to deal with him.’ The hall of a nobleman's house in Dublin having been placed at his disposal, he caused it to be lined with tapestry and covered with carpets, and had an altar made and magnificently decorated. Here high mass was celebrated with a full orchestra, composed of harps, lutes, and all kinds of instruments except the organ. The catholics used to go armed to mass in order to protect the priests and themselves. Father Field, superior of the Irish jesuit mission, reported in September 1599 that Fitzsimon was working hard, that crowds flocked to hear him and were converted, that he led rather an open, demonstrative life, never dining without six or eight guests, and that when he went through the country, he rode with three or four gentlemen, who served as companions. His zeal led to his arrest in 1599, and he was committed to Dublin Castle, where he remained in confinement for about five years. While in prison he held disputations with Dr. Challenor, Meredith Hanmer, Dean Rider, and James Ussher, afterwards primate of Ireland. On 12 March 1603–4 James I ordered Fitzsimon's release, but he was not actually liberated until three months later. About 1 June 1604 he was taken from Dublin Castle and placed on board a ship which landed him at Bilboa in Spain.

After some time he left Spain for Flanders, and in 1608 he was summoned on the business of the Irish mission to Rome, where he made his solemn profession of the four vows, and where he appears to have remained till after April 1611, when he returned to Flanders. On 1 July 1620 he reached the imperial camp in Bohemia, and, in the capacity of army chaplain, went through the campaign, of which he wrote a history. He was again in Belgium in 1626. At length, after an exile of twenty-six years, he returned in 1630 to his native country. Having been condemned to be hanged for complicity in the rebellion he was forced to leave the Dublin residence of the jesuits and to fly by night to distant mountains, in company with