Benjamin Simpson Sr. (abt. 1694 - abt. 1762)

Descendants

Died about Apr 1762 at about age 68 in Perquimans County, North Carolina

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Biography

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The details of Benjamin Simpson's parents and birth are mostly unknown. We know he must have been born by about 1694, but where, and to whom, is unknown. He was still alive on 11 May 1761, when he wrote his will, and dead by 1762, when his will was probated in Perquimans County. We also know that he was almost certainly of Scottish descent, and a member of the Kirk of Scotland, from his son Samuel's membership in that church.

Benjamin first appears in the tax records in Chowan County, North Carolina, in 1717, indicating he was at least 21 years old at that time. He had likely emigrated from the Ulster Plantation, in Northern Ireland, as this was not long after the beginning of the Scots-Irish (Ulster Scots) immigration to America, as well as the beginning of the emigration of Europeans from Virginia, and other colonies as well, to the coastal areas of North Carolina. It's not known where he might have originally arrived; most Ulster Scots immigrants in this period arrived in either Virginia or Pennsylvania.

He next appears in 1723, when Henry Haughton transferred land to him in Chowan County. He appears again, in 1736, transferring land in Chowan County to Luke Gregory. This likely is about the time he moved from Chowan to adjacent Perquimans County, where he appears in the census record in 1740.

Benjamin is shown with 3 sons ["Benjamin Simpson and 3 sons"] in the 1748 tax list of Perquimans County. We know the names of sons Benjamin Jr and Samuel, from a 9 Jan 1759 document where Benjamin granted his son Samuel 53 acres of land, in Perquimans County, adjacent to land owned by "Benjamin Simpson Jr" [Land Record Book F, #169 and #301]. The third son may have died by that date; perhaps more likely, however, he was the father of a Frederick, born about 1770, who appears later in the record. Benjamin Sr's son Samuel named a son, born 1790, Frederick. There was a Frederick Simpson who married a Lydia Elliot in 1796 in Chowan County, and who appears, with his young wife, in adjacent Perquimans County in the 1800 census, age 26 to 44, and was granted land in Chowan County that same year; they have one son under 10, and another 10 to 15, meaning this Frederick Simpson was likely born about 1770. This Frederick is too old to be the son of Samuel Simpson; he is quite possibly the son of the unknown brother to Samuel and Benjamin Jr.

The 1859 transfer of land, from Benjamin Sr to Samuel, indicates not only that Samuel Simpson must have reached the age of 21, but also that his brother Benjamin, who had already received a grant of land from their father, must have been the older of the two brothers. Presumably Samuel was therefore born about 1738, and Benjamin Jr 1735 or thereabout, perhaps earlier, in either Chowan or Perquimans County.

4 years after the land 1748 transfer, in Chowan County, from Benjamin Sr. to Luke Gregory, Benjamin and Samuel "Simson" appear on the 1754 Militia Roll for Perquimans County; they appear together, next to each other on the list. Presumably that Benjamin is Samuel's older brother, who certainly would have been old enough to be on the militia rolls. But Benjamin Sr. is missing. The implication from that is that Benjamin Sr. may have been older than age 60, therefore born before 1694. That confirms the implication from Benjamin's 1717 tax record of his birth on or before 1696. And as Samuel was born before about 1738, a birth year for Benjamin Sr. 44 years earlier, in 1694 or thereabout, is certainly possible.

There is also a Thomas Simson, elsewhere on the 1754 militia roll, in the same company but elsewhere on the roll. It's possible, though unlikely, that this Thomas was the third son of Benjamin Sr., and brother to Benjamin Jr. and Samuel. Arguing against this is that neither Benjamin Jr. nor Samuel named a son Thomas; there's also the Frederick mentioned above who is a more likely candidate. This Thomas Simson disappears from the record, in Perquimans county, thereafter; in particular his name does not appear in the 1759 transfer of land from Benjamin Sr. to Samuel, mentioned above, wherein Benjamin Jr is also named. The Thomas who appears in the muster may have been the Thomas Simpson who appears in 1756 in Craven county; this is probably the same Thomas Simpson who appears in adjacent Craven County in 1767, and who died in 1768, with a William, Hannah, and Abraham Simpson named in his probate documents. Those names would suggest no relation to the family of Benjamin Simpson Sr.

Not much more is known about Benjamin Sr between 1717 and 1759. Many of the records for Chowan County were burned, at some point, by an acting court clerk. Records for Perquimans county are comparatively well-kept, but no Simpson appears before the mentioned transfer of property from Benjamin to his son Samuel. We have Benjamin's will, probated in 1762, that names his wife Zilpha, and his sister Mary. Benjamin, Samuel, and the unknown third son are his only known children, but Benjamin and Samuel were born comparatively late in life, when he was in his forties. He many have had an earlier wife, who died early, and other children with that wife. In any case, Zilpha likely was the mother of Benjamin Jr. and Samuel. Benjamin's sons, already having received their patrimony, are not named in his will, nor are any other children.

Zilpha may have been the sister of Luke Gregory, to whom Benjamin transferred land in Chown County in 1736; Benjamin's son Samuel named one of his children Luke.

There are some trees that show Benjamin Sr marrying a "Margaret", or a Margrett Caunt, in Nottinghamshire, England, in November or Dec 1723 , and/or that he arrived from England in 1727, arriving in Maryland. None of this, of course, is possible, as Benjamin was already in North Carolina in 1717, and the English Benjamin and Margaret had at least 4 children, all born in Cotgrave, Nottinghamshire after 1723: Sarah, Paul, Joseph, and Margaret. Perhaps they may be related to the Benjamin Simpson who we find in the tax and land records of Maryland later in the 1700's.

There are also trees that show Benjamin Sr as the son of Samuel Samson and Hasadiah Eddy of Plympton Massachusetts, but that too is impossible. We have that Samuel Samson's will; he named no son Benjamin, both he and his wife died in Plympton, his children all went by the name "Samson," (not Simpson) and there is no record of anyone related to that family ever relocating to North Carolina. There is no connection between that family and Benjamin Simpson of North Carolina.

Benjamin was born about 1701. He passed away about 1759. ^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ Unsourced family tree handed down to L Stephens.

• Find-a-Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/221103408/benjamin-simpson