Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 52.djvu/280

Simpson of 1802 has a memoir by John Gaulter, and one in 1837 a memoir by Sir John B. Williams. 9. ‘An Apology for the Doctrine of the Trinity,’ 1798; reprinted in 1812, with memoir by Edward Parsons.

[Memoir by Rev. James Johnston, Macclesfield, 1878; Earwaker's East Cheshire, ii. 509; Allibone's Dict. of Authors, ii. 2107; Tyerman's John Wesley, 1871, iii. 165.]

 SIMPSON or SIMSON, EDWARD (1578–1651), divine, son of Edward Simpson, rector of Tottenham, was born at Tottenham on 9 May 1578. In 1592 he gained a queen's scholarship at Westminster school, and in 1596 was elected to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1600, M.A. in 1603, and B.D. in 1610. In 1601 he was elected a fellow of Trinity, a position which he retained till 1628. In 1611 he became chaplain to Sir Moyle Finch of Eastwell in Kent, and remained there till the death of his patron four years later. In 1618, by the interest of Viscountess Maidstone, widow of Sir Moyle Finch, he was presented to the rectory of Eastling in Kent, and in the same year received the degree of D.D. In 1628 he was appointed prebendary of Coringham in the diocese of Lincoln, of which he was afterwards deprived by the sequestrators, and became rector of Pluckley in Kent, a living which he retained till 1649, when he resigned it to his son-in-law, Israel Tonge [q. v.] He died in 1651, having been twice married. By his first wife, the daughter of Richard Barham of Kent, he had an only daughter Jane, married to Israel Tonge, his successor at Pluckley. Simson's portrait is prefixed to Wesseling's edition of his ‘Chronicon.’

Simpson published: 1. ‘Chronicon Historiam Catholicam complectens, pars prima,’ Cambridge, 1636, 4to; published complete in two parts, Oxford, 1652, fol.; ed. Peter Wesseling, Leyden, 1729, fol. He is also credited by his biographer with 2. ‘Positive Divinity.’ 3. ‘Knowledge of Christ.’ 4. ‘God's Providence in regard to Evil or Sin.’ 5. ‘Notæ Selectiores in Horatium.’ 6. ‘Prælectiones in Persii Satyras.’ 7. ‘Anglicanæ Linguæ Vocabularium Etymologicum.’ 8. ‘Sanctæ Linguæ Soboles.’ 9. ‘Dii Gentium.’

[Life by Thomas Jones (1622?–1682) [q. v.] prefixed to Chronicon, 1652; Welch's Alumni Westm. p. 65; Fuller's Hist. of Cambridge, p. 223; Granger's Biogr. Hist. ii. 361; Lloyd's Memoires, p. 614; Wood's Athenæ Oxon., ed. Bliss, iii. 1261, 1263; Chalmers's Biogr. Dict. xxxviii. 12; Cole's Athenæ Cant. Addit. MSS. 5880, f. 46; Hasted's Kent, ii. 758, iii. 234.]

 SIMPSON, ELSPETH (1738–1791), founder of Buchanites. [See ]

 SIMPSON, GEORGE (1792–1860), colonist, born at Ross in 1792, was the only son of George Simpson of Lochbroom, Ross-shire. In 1809 he was brought to London, and, after completing his education, entered a merchant's office. In 1820 he emigrated to New York and thence to Montreal, where he entered the service of the Hudson's Bay Company. To the interests of the company he devoted his whole energy. He passed the winter of 1820 at Athabasca, suffering great privations, but keeping up an active competition with the North-West Company. In 1821 the two rival companies coalesced, and Simpson was made governor of the northern department, later known as Rupert's Land. He was entrusted with the full control of the reorganised Hudson's Bay Company's affairs in Canada, and showed remarkable tact in abating personal jealousies, reconciling conflicting interests, and applying a firm control. In 1827, and again in 1829–30 and 1833–4, he came to England to confer with the directors.

Travelling and exploring in a vast unopened country became part of his ordinary life. Of one of these journeys a good account has been preserved. Starting on 12 July 1828, he traversed the breadth of the continent, running the risks of Indian hostility and facing the dangers of unknown rapids, passed the Rocky Mountains by cañons previously untried, and arrived at Fort Langley on 10 Oct. after a journey of 3,260 miles. He was ‘ever the fastest of travellers in the north’ (, Peace River. A Canoe Voyage from Hudson's Bay to Pacific by ... Sir G. Simpson, Ottawa, 1872). He equally encouraged his subordinates in the exploration of the company's great territory; the first results of importance were obtained by the expedition which he organised under Peter Warren Dease and his nephew Thomas Simpson (1808–1840) [q. v.] in 1837, which determined the lie of the arctic coast from the Mackenzie River westward to Point Barrow. He is accused by Thomas Simpson's biographer, Alexander Simpson, of unfairness to his nephew and of throwing difficulties in the way of the later efforts of this expedition (Memoir of Thomas Simpson, pp. 350, 396); but this account must be received with caution. In 1841 he was knighted.

On 3 March 1841 Simpson left Liverpool with a secretary and some officials of the Hudson's Bay Company on an ‘overland’ journey round the world. By way of Halifax and Boston he proceeded to Canada,