Notes on Badsey surnames :
Simpson

These are a series of notes compiled by Maureen Spinks on families who lived in or near Badsey. Maureen, who has transcribed the Badsey parish and census records up to the beginning of the 20th century, will attempt to answer specific queries from bona fide researchers. Please give as much information as possible in order to make the task easier. Please e-mail any corrections, additions or queries to history@badsey.net. For a full list of the surnames covered see the research interests page.

SIMPSON (1676-1874)

The first mention of a Simpson in Badsey was the burial of Thomas Symson, son of Thomas, in 1676. Another Thomas Symson (who was married to Joan) was buried in 1679 (presumably the father). A few years later, Elizabeth, wife of Charles Simpson was buried. It is assumed that there were probably two brothers, Thomas and Charles, who came to Badsey in the 1670s.

Charles seems to have married again (possibly Henrietta or Joan – there are scant references which need to be checked). They had six sons: Thomas (1686), Charles (1688-1692), Joseph (1690-1692), Charles (about 1692), Joseph (1695-1695) and John (1697-1729), three dying in infancy.

Thomas Simpson (1686-?) married Ann and had three sons who all died in infancy. John Simpson (1697-1729) married Ann and they had three sons and one daughter: Charles (1721-1721), William (1721-1721), John (1723), and Elizabeth (1726-1727). Ann Simpson died in 1730 but it is not known when Thomas died.

However, it was Charles Simpson (c 1692-1769) who was to carry on the family line. He married Mary Dunn in 1717 and they had six sons and one daughter: Joseph (1718-1784), William (1720), Mary (1723), James (1726), Charles (1731-1735), John (1731-1785) and Charles (1736-1810). Of these seven children, three (Joseph, John and Charles) carried on the Simpson name in Badsey into the 19th century.

Descendants of Joseph Simpson (1718-1784)

Charles and Mary’s eldest son, Joseph (1718-1784) married Judith and they had two sons and a daughter: William (1740-1740), Joseph (1749-1828) and Mary (1754).

Joseph Junior (1749-1828) married Hannah Gould in 1771 and they had four sons and one daughter: Joseph (1771-1771), Judith (1772), Joseph (1774-1811), John (1779-1822) and William (1781-1820). Joseph (1774-1811) married Mary Lebbiter in 1801 and they had one son and three daughters born in Badsey: Judith (1802-1888), Mary (1804-1827), Joseph (1806-1843) and Ann (1810-1821). Joseph died in 1811, and the bereaved family moved to Wickhamford some time after this as they feature no further in parish records (except for Ann’s death in 1821, when she was buried at Badsey, but died at Wickhamford).

John (1779-1822) married Ann Izard in 1800 and had one son and three daughters: Hannah (1800), Ann (1805), Mary (1808-1854) and John (1811-1874). John died of typhus fever in July 1822 and Ann died in 1832. Hannah married George Halford in 1825. It is not known what happened to Ann, but Mary and John never married and remained in Badsey until their deaths. Mary and John, the brother and sister, were the only branch of this side of the family left in Badsey at the time of the 1841 census, John working as a labourer. They still lived there in 1851, possibly in the Old Post Office Lane area of Badsey. Mary died of consumption in 1854, aged 44. By 1861, John was living alone on Old Post Office Lane, as he was in 1871, described then as an annuitant. When John died in December 1874, he was the last of the Simpsons in Badsey.

Descendants of John Simpson (1731-17?)

Charles and Mary’s sixth child, John (1731-1797) married Catharine Smith in 1756 and had three sons: William (1759), John (1762-1785) and Joseph (1766-1789). John was a baker and died in 1797. William married Hannah and had seven children born in Badsey: Caroline (1789), Joseph (1790-1868), John (1792-1794), John (1794), Mary (1797), William (1799-1800) and William (1805). When William the baby was only two years old, William Simpson the father, described as a baker, died in March 1807, aged 48. Hannah, his widow, married again in 1813, to Antony Smith. She died in 1836, and Antony, who was her junior by 13 years, died in 1843.

By the time of the 1841 census, Joseph Simpson, initially carrying on the bakery business, was the only member of this branch of the family still in Badsey. It is likely that he lived in the Chapel Street area of Badsey, in the vicinity of Rose Cottage and Vine Cottage. He was still living there in 1851 (but now described as a labourer) and was lodging with Sarah Harris (who, according to the 1841 census, appeared then to have been living next-door to him). By 1861, Joseph was lodging with George and Eliza Dones. He died at Evesham Union in March 1868, aged 78.

Descendants of Charles Simpson (1736-1810)

Charles and Mary’s youngest child, Charles (1736-1810), the youngest in the family, may have married three times. By his first marriage to Elizabeth, he had one son and three daughters: Mary (1758), Hannah (1760-1781), James (1763) and Elizabeth (1765). Elizabeth Simpson, wife of Charles, was buried in April 1768. It is believed that Charles then married again, to another Elizabeth, and that she died in July 1772, having given birth to a son, Charles (1772-1848), about six months earlier; they also had a daughter, Ann (1870-1838). Charles Simpson (Senior) married for a third time, in 1798, to widow, Mary Oldaker (Mary’s husband, Richard, the village blacksmith, had died in 1796). Five years earlier, his son, Charles, had married another Mary Oldaker, the daughter of his new wife. Charles died in 1810 and Mary in 1817 .

Charles Simpson (1772-1848) married Mary Oldaker in 1793 (Mary was the daughter of Richard and Mary Oldaker; Richard had taken over the blacksmith’s business in Badsey in 1774)). Valentine and Elizabeth Knight were the witnesses; they were Charles’ half-sister and her husband. They had seven sons and two daughters: George (1793), William (1795-1874), Charles (1797), Joseph (1799-1804), John (1801), Mary Ann (1803-1861), Joseph (1806), Anna (1809) and David (1815). Charles was a farmer and lived at Aldington at the time of his children’s births. At the time of the 1841 census, Charles and Mary were living somewhere in Evesham, and died there respectively in 1848 and 1844, but were buried at Badsey. All their children, too, had left Aldington.

Of Charles and Mary’s children, William (1795-1874), became an Engineer and Smith and married Sarah. Could he have had some kind of employment on the canals, as he seems to have moved around a bit between Evesham and Warkwickshire? At the time of the 1851 census, he was living at 218 Great Lester Street, Aston, Warwickshire, with his wife, Sarah (who was born in Salford) and four of his children were living there (Thomas, Sarah, Louisa and Mabel), all described as being born at "Eastham", Worcestershire (presumably Evesham). There was also at least one other child, John Cornelius, baptised at All Saints, Evesham, on Christmas Day 1820. John became a Blacksmith, as did his son, also John Cornelius. It is likely that John learnt the trade from his uncle, Samuel Oldaker, who was the village blacksmith in Badsey. Certainly, in 1871, John was to be found living in Badsey, presumably trying to keep the business going after the Oldakers had all died out. At the time of the 1881 census, widower John, lived with his son, John, and family, in Birmingham, both working as blacksmiths. There was also most likely another son, Edward, born at Evesham about 1825. According to the 1851 Warwickshire index, he was living at 87 Bradford Street, Aston, with his wife and two young children, George and Sarah. He, too, was a Whitesmith, and presumably lived fairly close to William Simpson. Peggy Dolan, an overseas member of The Badsey Society, living in Florida, USA, is a descendant of William Simpson.

Charles and Mary’s son, Charles (1797-?), was living at 148 High Street, Bordesley, Aston, Warwickshire, in 1851. The 1851 Worcestershire Transcript lists his birthplace as Bailsey, Worcestershire, but this is most likely a misreading of Badsey. Charles, a Maltster and Confectioner, was living with his wife, Mary, and nine-year-old daughter, Emma.

Charles and Mary’s daughter, Mary Ann (1803-1861), married Samuel Butler (or Butter as it sometimes appears), a shoemaker and farmer from Bickenhill, Warwickshire. They remained in Bickenhill until their deaths, Mary Ann in 1861 and Samuel in 1871. They had four sons and six daughters in total: Richard, Mary Ann, Samuel, Elizabeth, Charles, Sarah, Ann, Harriet, John and Emma. At the time of the 1851 census, they were living at Huddle Hall, Bickenhill Meriden, Warwickshire. Twenty years had been added to Mary’s age (at least according to the transcript in the 1851 Warwickshire index) and Mary’s birthplace is referred to as "Goodsey" rather than Badsey – a sense of humour on the part of the Head of the household or the census enumerator?! Anne le Maistre, living in Bristol, is a descendant of Mary Ann.

Simpson Strays

In 1891, 33-year-old Mary Simpson was working as a monthly nurse for the Savory family at Aldington Manor; but, as she was born in Oban, Scotland, she is not thought to be related.

See also:
Research interests:surnames and other topics in Badsey and Aldington
Alphabetical index of surnames


Updated 5 September 2003. Contact email: History@badsey.net