[1][2] Born in Tournai, in the province of Hainaut, Belgium,[3] he studied at the University of Louvain, and studied civil law at Brussels.
[4] Following the annexation of Belgium to Holland,[3] Simon emigrated to London in 1817, and from there to Baltimore, where he went into the cotton business.
[4] There, he was encouraged to finish his legal studies by his friend Felix Grima, a judge of the state.
[4] He was the first of five consecutive generations of Louisiana judges, and his great-grandson, James Dudley Simon, also served on the Louisiana Supreme Court.
This biography of a state judge in Louisiana is a stub.