Robert Simms, a Founder of the United Irishmen and Proprietor of the Northern Star, Is Born

Robert Simms (20 March 1761 – 1843) was an Irish radical, and a founding member in Belfast of the Society of United Irishmen.

A Presbyterian born in Belfast, Simms was the owner of a paper mill in Ballyclare with his brother William Simms, one of twelve proprietors of the Northern Star newspaper. A close friend of Wolfe Tone who nicknamed him ’the Tanner’, he was one of the founders of the Society of United Irishmen in Belfast in 1791 and the author of “Declaration and Resolutions of the Society of United Irishmen of Belfast.”

Simms served as the first Secretary of the Society, drafting many of its early letters, pamphlets and papers.