John Symes (politician, born 1573)

(4 March 1573 – 29 October 1661), was a Member of Parliament (MP) from Somerset, High Sheriff, and Justice of the Peace in 17th Century England.

Symes was a Royalist during the English Civil War, and appointed to numerous commissions during the reign of Charles I.

[4] Their arms are: Azure, three escallops in pale or (Symes), impaling, Argent, on a cross sable a leopard's face or (Bridges).

This loyalty to the Crown came at a cost, as Symes faced financial penalties and was forced to take refuge in Gloucestershire during the Cromwellian period.

Following the English Civil War and the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, Symes regained his estates but, due to declining health, spent his final years in Frampton Cotterell, Gloucestershire.

His epitaph lauds him as a man of "wisdom, justice, integrity, and sobriety", virtues he displayed throughout his life.

[11][12] By the late 17th century, the spelling of the family name transitioned from "Symes" to "Sims" in Virginia’s colonial records.

The change reflects the phonetic recording practices of clerks and the simplification of English surnames during that period.

[13] Thomas and William Morriss were collocated on the same plantation in Culpeper County (formerly Orange), which was purchased from George Hume.