Simpson


Select Simpson Surname Genealogy

Simpson is derived from Simon, a popular baptismal name among the Normans.  It is a surname which has been infected by a "parasitic glide consonant."  This basically means that the "p" was not originally there and came about naturally from the pronunciation of Simson.  Simpson with the "p" first occurred in 1397 when a John Simpson was recorded in Yorkshire.

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England and Scotland.  Simpson is a surname of northern England and of Scotland.  One early family line traces itself to Simon, the son of William de Clint in Yorkshire, who adopted the name of Simpson to distinguish himself from the de Clints.  His family became known as Simpson in the 14th century and they subsequently moved north into Fifeshire in Scotland.  Simpsons were to be found there and later further north in Aberdeenshire. 

The Simpsons were also one of the freebooting Border "reiver" families of the 16th century.  After the Border pacification, many of these Simpsons ended up in Ireland and later in America.

America.  Tyrone farmer John Simpson had a grandson who later became President Ulysses S. Grant.  John Simpson had emigrated to Ohio in 1760.  His small whitewashed cottage back in Ireland has been preserved as a museum. 

William Simpson, also Scots Irish, was the forebear of the Simpsons of Union county, North Carolina.  He had arrived there with his wife Martha sometime in the 1770's.  There were 371 Simpsons in the 1790 US census, of which some 30 percent were recorded in the Carolinas.

Obadiah Simpson, born in North Carolina, was one of the Empire Loyalists who left for Canada after the Revolutionary War.  He and his family were the first homesteaders in the Brighton township along the northern shores of Lake Ontario.  Meanwhile, George Simpson had come out from Scotland in 1821.  Known as "the little emperor," he was to be the dominant figure in the development of the Hudson Bay Company in the Canadian West over the next forty years.       
 
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Thomas Simpson, born in Leicestershire, was a noted 18th century mathematician.
Archibald Simpson was the principal architect of the granite city Aberdeen in the early 19th century.
Robert Simpson was a naval hero for Chile in their War of the Confederation of the 1830's.
George Simpson established the Hudson Bay Company in Canada, being Governor of the company from 1826 until his death in 1860.
James Simpson was the Scottish doctor who pioneered the use of chloroform in the 19th century.
Wallis Simpson was the American divorcee who married King Edward VIII and became the Duchess of Windsor.
O.J. Simpson is the former American football star who was acquitted of his wife's murder in a famous court trial, but was later convicted of robbery.
John Simpson is BBC's leading foreign correspondent.
The Simpsons are a fictionalized American family in the popular animated TV sitcom.

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  • 101,000 in the UK (most numerous in Aberdeen)
  • 56,000 in America (most numerous in Texas)
  • 46,000 elsewhere (most numerous in Australia)

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For other surnames check the companion selectsurname.com site where there are to be found the history and genealogy for more than 500 surnames.

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