Author of the award-winning Witches, Rakes, and Rogues, and other books, Brenton Simons is the President Emeritus and Chief Stewardship Officer. He is the immediate past President and CEO of American Ancestors, having served in that role from 2005 to 2023. He has been a member of the staff since 1993. In his tenure, he has overseen a significant expansion of the Society’s membership, programming, and scholarship, as well as a critical expansion of its Boston campus.

Simons is the recipient of the Washington Irving Medal for Literary Excellence (Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York); the Bradford Award (Pilgrim Hall Museum); the John Adams Medal (Massachusetts Society of the Sons of the Revolution); the History Award (National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution); the Award of Merit (American Association for State and Local History), and several other awards.

He is past Vice Chair of the Plymouth 400th Anniversary State Commission and a member of the State Commission to Investigate the Seal and Motto of Massachusetts, both by appointment of former Massachusetts Governor Charles D. Baker. Simons also serves as President of the American Patrons (formerly the American Friends) of St George’s and Descendants of the Knights of the Garter, Windsor Castle, and he is President of the International Congress of Genealogical and Heraldic Sciences.

In The King’s Special Honours announced in October 2023, King Charles III appointed Simons an honorary Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in recognition of his longtime services to Anglo-American history.