He was born in 1775 in the village of Bobova (hence Bobovac), in the Simić Hamlet (). The Simić brotherhood moved to Valjevo's Podgorina around the beginning of the 18th century from Rudine near Nikšić, from the Drobnjaci tribe. On their way towards the Kingdom of Hungary with other refugees from Old Herzegovina and Old Montenegro, they stopped in Podgorina, at the foot of the Medvednik mountain (probably because the impassable hinterland provided security from the Ottomans). The hill beneath which the Simić Hamlet is still located today is called the Simić peak ().