Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Simpson, Edward
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.]