Author: Sympson, Joseph
Biography:
SYMPSON, Joseph (1715?-1807: ancestry.com)
His only published work seems to have been a product of his retirement after a long career as the Rector of Wythburn Church, near Kendal in the Lake District, where the Wordsworths were neighbours and friends. Wordsworth (q.v.) includes a tribute to him in Excursion 7: 31-291. The family--Sympson, his wife Mary, and at least three children--lived at High Broadrayne (or Broadrain), between Wythburn and Grasmere. His date and place of birth are not reliably recorded but he was 92 in June 1807 when he died. Church records indicate that he was ordained in 1769 and went to Wythburn as assistant curate in 1776. (The village of Wythburn is now submerged, but the church stands.) He was evidently a talented amateur artist; the Sympsons' daughter Julia married an Ambleside artist, J. C. Ibbetson. He died and is buried at Wythburn. (ancestry.com 30 Oct. 2020; CCEd 30 Oct. 2020; Dorothy Wordsworth, Journals [1941] 437-8)
Other Names:
- J. Sympson