Dunfermline

My immigrant ancestor was William Simson, who first appeared in Delaware in 1674, when he obtained 400 acres from the Duke of York near present-day Little Creek Landing in Delaware, which he named Simson's Choice.  I can only speculate about how and when William arrived in America but I love to speculate so all good. 

I have long believed that my paternal ancestors were Scottish, first because they always called themselves Scottish, sometimes Scots-Irish, but then because of a close Y-DNA match with distant Simpson cousin in England who claimed Andrew Simpson, born 1818 in Hutton in the Scottish Borders region, as an ancestor. Now, I have another close match from a much more precise Big-Y test, with another Simpson cousin. My new Simpson cousin also lives in England and is 4th cousins with the first Y-DNA match. 

His tree, which does make a speculative leap in the middle, stretches back to Andro Simson, baptized on January 14th, 1640, in Dunfermline, Fife, the son of James Simsone and Bessie Walker. Interestingly, James and Bessie had another son, born May 26, 1637 in Dunfermline, who would have been 37 in 1674, old enough to have completed an indenture, accumulate a little land, and migrate to Delaware. Could this be my William? 

Williame Simson 1637 Baptismal Record... Can you read this??

Originally Dutch, then Swedish, then English, then Dutch again, and finally English again, Delaware passed in to the hands of the Duke of York, the future James II, King of England, in 1783. Many of the new settlers into the region migrated up from the colony of Maryland, including William Simson's friends and neighbors, such as the Manlove, Dutton, and Truitt families. Could William of Simson's Choice have first landed in Maryland? At this time, not a lot of Scots were immigrating to America, so how would he have come to arrive there?

After the Battle of Dunbar in 1650, Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of England, took many Scots as prisoners-of-war, most of whom died in captivity. However, the English transported thousands of Scots prisoners to the American colonies. A famous Scot transported to Maryland, through Barbados, was Ninian Beall, born 1625 in Largo, Fife not too far from Dunfermline. He arrived in 1652, served a five year indenture, and obtained 50 acres. 

There are several reconstructed passengers lists of Beall arriving again and again in Maryland. It's possible that these were trips to obtained colonists for Maryland, which used a headright system, granting 50 acres for every colonist you brought to the colony. Beall reportedly recruited colonists from Fife. A William Simson is recorded arriving in Maryland in 1668, when William of Dunfermline would have been 29. Could this also be William of Simson's Choice? 

The first task here is to confirm that the Simpsons of 17th Century Dunfermline are the right family. That will likely require finding another Simpson man who descends from them. That should tell us if we're in the right neighborhood at least. ​