William Simson

Life Story

William Simson, also recorded by clerks as William Simpson, was probably born about June 1686. The estimate rests on a December 1699 Kent County court record in which John Walker brought a servant boy named William Simpson before the court without an indenture. The court judged the boy to be about thirteen years and six months old and ordered him to serve Walker, or Walker’s assigns, until age twenty-one.

The record does not directly state that the servant boy was the later Mispillion Hundred landholder, so that connection remains an identity argument rather than a single-record conclusion. The chronology and neighbourhood pattern are strong enough to make the identification useful: the boy would have reached adulthood about 1707, just before a William Simson appeared as a witness to Luke Manlove’s 1708 will in the Walker-Manlove legal circle.

By 1718, William Simpson of Kent County was seeking land in his own right. A proprietary warrant dated 1 December 1718 authorized a survey of 200 acres for him in the forest of Kent County. He appears in Mispillion Hundred tax records by 1726, and his later land records place him near the branches of Mispillion Creek.

William’s records show the working life of a modest but established Kent County yeoman. In 1728, a 200-acre tract called Simson’s Chance was surveyed for him. In 1729, he mortgaged a 200-acre tract called Mount Pleasant to Mark Manlove and John Hall, trustees of the General Loan Office, for a loan of ten pounds in bills of credit. The Manlove connection appears again in this land record, strengthening the case that William’s adult life continued inside the same local network seen in the earlier Walker and Manlove records.

The tax and land records identify William’s sons before his probate. In 1733, the Mispillion Hundred tax list included William Simson with an associated John Simson. In 1734, the tax list specifically called John Simson William’s son. In 1735, the list included William Simson, John Simson, and William Simson Junr., showing that the elder William had an adult namesake by that date.

William Simson Junr. died before 19 December 1748, when Margarett Simpson administered his estate. Her 1751 estate account included a payment to “the father in Law Willm Simpson,” strongly identifying the younger William as a son of the elder William.

On 22 May 1749, William Simpson of Kent County, yeoman, conveyed 147 acres on the south side of the main branch of Mispillion Creek to John Simpson. The deed states that William made the conveyance “for the good Love and good Will that I bear unto my son the aforesaid John Simpson.” This deed explains why John does not need to appear as a devisee in William’s later will: John had already received land during William’s lifetime.

William made his will on 13 November 1757, describing himself as William Simpson of Kent County, Delaware, yeoman. He named his wife Urcilla, his son Moses Simpson, and his daughters Joan, Elizabeth, and Jemima. Urcilla received use of the part of the plantation where William lived for her natural life. Moses received the land and plantation where he and William lived. The personal estate, after debts, was to be divided among William’s three daughters when they reached full age.

William died between 13 November and 10 December 1757, when his will was proved at Dover. His inventory was appraised on 19 December 1757. Later estate accounts and an executor deed show that Urcilla and Moses continued to settle William’s unfinished land business after his death.

In 1768, John Shockley Jr. and Jane his wife, together with Isaac Lay and Elizabeth his wife, conveyed their two-thirds interest in a 229-acre Mispillion Hundred tract to Matthias Davis. The deed recited that William Simpson had devised the tract to his three daughters, Jane, Elizabeth, and Jemima. This later deed connects the daughters named in William’s will to their married names and confirms the passage of that land through William’s estate.

Children

Known or strongly supported children include:

• John Simpson, identified as William’s son in the 1734 Mispillion Hundred tax list and in William’s 1749 deed of gift.
• William Simpson Jr., listed separately from William and John in the 1735 Mispillion Hundred tax list. He died before 19 December 1748, leaving Margarett Simpson as administratrix.
• Moses Simpson, named as William’s son and co-executor in the 1757 will.
• Jane Simpson, probably the daughter recorded as Joan in William’s will. By 1768, she was the wife of John Shockley Jr.
• Elizabeth Simpson, named as William’s daughter in the 1757 will. By 1768, she was the wife of Isaac Lay.
• Jemima Simpson, also recorded as Jamima, named in William’s will and in the 1768 deed concerning the daughters’ 229-acre tract.