(died 1811?), clergyman. Fr Fitzsimmons, who was a Franciscan friar, came to Canada with Lord Selkirk’s settlers. He was the second parish priest at St. Raphael’s, serving there from the fall of 1804 till early 1805. The first priest was Fr Alexander Macdonell (Scotus), who died in 1803, and the third priest was Fr Alexander Macdonell, later the first bishop of Upper Canada. Afterwards, Fr Fitzsimmons was parish priest at St. Andrew’s, Stormont County, from March 1805 to Sept. 1808. He got along badly with the people of both parishes and there were requests from both for his recall. According to the newspaper report of a speech by Mgr George Corbet in 1923 on the early history of Roman Catholicism in Eastern Ontario, Fr Fitzsimmons “was removed by the Bishop of Quebec to the vicinity of Gaspe, and died there in 1811.” (Cornwall Freeholder 13 Dec. 1923) There is a tradition that he left the GC area for Chaleur Bay, N.B., and was drowned on Christmas Day, at a date which may have been as early as in 1808. (Sinnsearachd 78)

Ewan Ross, St. Raphael’s (1985) 12-13 & Choquette 17-19 (the two best printed accounts of Fitzsimmons) * Harkness 120 (some documentary material) * Sinnsearachd 48 (a valuable personal glimpse, based on family recollections), 78, 85, 169 * H27 * Villeneuve 157