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 which, in May 1651, Captain Robert Norwood [see ] was excommunicated for ‘blasphemous errors’ of a pantheistic stamp. In 1653 he was appointed rector of St. Bartholomew, Exchange, by the commissioners of the great seal. He preached at the Cambridge commencement, 1653; was one of the parliamentary committee of fourteen, appointed in the same year, to draw up ‘fundamentals;’ and on 20 March 1654 was made one of the ‘triers.’ For preaching against Cromwell he was imprisoned for a short time in Windsor Castle, and prohibited from preaching within ten miles of London. Ill-health seems latterly to have affected Simpson's spirits. Neal places his death in 1658, but he died on 18 April 1655, and was buried in St. Bartholomew's, Exchange. His portrait has been engraved. His will (made 2 April, proved 15 April 1655, and signed ‘Sidrach Simpson’) disposes of considerable property, and mentions his wife Isabella. His son, Sidrach Simpson, D.D. (d. 1704), was educated at Oxford after his father's death, and was for forty years rector of Stoke Newington (from 3 Jan. 1664–5), a high churchman, and somewhat severe with dissenters; though, says Luke Milbourne (1649–1720) [q. v.], ‘he did not go farther than the Assembly did with the Five Brethren.’

Besides a fast sermon before the House of Commons, 1643, 4to (preached 1642), another same date (preached 26 July 1643), and the publications issued jointly by the five ‘apologists,’ Simpson published: 1. ‘The Anatomist Anatomis'd … Answer to … An Anatomy of Independencie,’ 1644, 4to (in reply to Alexander Forbes). 2. ‘Diatribē … the Iudgement of the Reformed Churches … concerning … Preaching by those who are not Ordained,’ 1647 [5 Feb. 1646] 4to (anon.; identified as Simpson's by Nye and Loder in preface to No. 4); answered by Lazarus Seaman [q. v.] 3. ‘A Plain and Necessary Confutation of Antichristian Errors,’ 1654, 4to. Posthumous were: 4. ‘Two Books … I. Of Unbelief. … II. Not going to Christ … is pardonable,’ [14 Dec.] 1658, 4to (ed. by Philip Nye and John Loder). 5. ‘Two Books … I. Of Faith. … II. Of Covetousness,’ [15 Dec.] 1658, 4to (from notes by Captain Mark Coe, Simpson's constant hearer for twelve years, and one of his executors). He prefaced Jeremiah Burroughs's ‘Exposition of First Peter,’ 1650, fol., and was joint editor of several of Burroughs's works.

[Simpson's publications; his will, at Somerset House; Edwards's Antapologia, 1644, pp. 142 sq., 215 sq. (has particulars from Bridge, and from Simpson's Letters); Baillie's Dissuasive, 1645–6; Edwards's Gangræna, 1646, ii. 16; The Form of an Excommunication made by Mr. S. Sympson, 1651; Norwood's Declaration after Excommunication, 1651; Dell's Tryal of the Spirits, 1653; Reliquiæ Baxterianiæ, 1696, i. 64, ii. 197; Walker's Sufferings of the Clergy, 1714, ii. 53; Peck's Desiderata Curiosa, 1779, ii. 494; Granger's Biographical Hist. of England, 1779, iii. 33; Wilson's Dissenting Churches of London 1808, i. 470 sq.; Brook's Lives of the Puritans, 1813, iii. 39 sq., 231, 311 sq.; Neal's Hist. of the Puritans (Toulmin), 1822, ii. 288, iv. 189; Hanbury's Historical Memorials, 1841, ii. 1844, iii.; Fletcher's Hist. of Independency, 1849, iv. 23 sq.; Mitchell and Struthers's Minutes of Westminster Assembly, 1874, pp. 293, 321; Barclay's Inner Life of Religious Societies of the Commonwealth, 1876, p. 104; Browne's Hist. Congr. Norf. and Suff., 1877, p. 69; Freshfield's Unpublished Records of London, 1887, pp. 22 sq.; Freshfield's Vestry Minute Books of St. Bartholomew, Exchange, 1890, xxxi–ii; Cole's manuscript Athenæ Cantabr.; Milbourne's Funeral Sermon for Sidrach Symson, D.D., 9 Nov. 1704.]

 SIMPSON, THOMAS (fl. 1620), musician, was one of two prominent English musicians who settled in Germany during the early seventeenth century. William Brade [q. v.] was the other. About 1610 Simpson was living at Rinteln, acting as a court musician to the Count of Schaumburg. In 1618 both Simpson and Brade are mentioned among the royal musicians at Copenhagen, but they apparently made only a short visit to Denmark.

Simpson published two collections of music, now very rare: 1. ‘Opus neuer Paduanen, Galliarden, Intraden, Canzonen, Ricercare, Fantasien, Balletten, Allemanden, Couranten, Volten, und Pasamezen lieblich zu gebrauchen mit 5 Stimmen gesetzt durch Thomas Simpson, Englændern,’ Frankfurt, 1611; reprinted at Hamburg 1617. A copy of the latter edition is included in Carl Israel's catalogue of the Landesbibliothek at Cassel, where English musicians were much in favour during Simpson's lifetime. It begins with a Latin poem ‘Ad musicum eximium Thomam Simsin,’ written by Michael Prætorius, and dated Dresden, 1614. Two pieces from this collection were reprinted in ‘Reigen und Tänze aus Kaiser Matthias Zeit,’ Leipzig, 1897. 2. ‘Tafel-Consort allerhand lustige Lieder von 4 Instrumenten und einem G. B.’ (figured-bass) ‘theils seiner eigenen, theils anderer,’ Hamburg, 1621. In this collection Simpson included works by J. Dowland, Peter Philipps, R. and E. Johnson, and several others. The British Museum possesses one part-book of the ‘Tafel-