Simpson Family Scrapbook

Family tree

These charts show the direct ancestors of David John Simpson, drawn from the Simpson Ancestry tree. Chart 1 covers five generations. Where a line goes further back, the right-hand box says "continued on chart N", and that chart picks up from that person. A blue edge means a man and a pink edge a woman. Dates and places are as the tree records them, so some are rough or uncertain.

Open the family tree charts →

How this scrapbook works

Everything collected for the Simpson tree lives here, grouped under each person's name. Each entry gives Tree says (what the tree file currently records), then each item found, then To check (conflicts or gaps to resolve). All conflicts are also collected in the final section.

The tree runs from David John Simpson (b. 1947) through his parents Clifford Simpson (1915–2011) and Irene Harriet Mary Okill (1914–2009). Batch 3 touches three of its branches:

• Okill (Maidstone, Kent): George Henry Okill, police pensioner
• Cliff (Essex): John Cliff and Margaret Elles, married 1792 — Clifford Simpson's great-great-grandparents through his mother Clara Cliff
• Pattenden / de Clifford (Bobbing, Kent), reached through Mary Sophia Pattenden, who married Thomas Joseph Okill in 1874

David's wife Sancia Berkeley-Thomas's family is in the Berkeley-Thomas & Glean scrapbook. The 1979 Christmas card addressed to "David & Sancia" is filed there, because it was sent by her cousin.

The de Clifford family of Bobbing Court, Kent

Relationship to David Simpson: Henrie de Clifford Pattenden (1542–1593) is David's 12× great-grandfather, on his mother's side through the Okills and Pattendens. His parents, either George Clifford and Ursula Finch or Richard and Anne (the tree is unsure), are David's 13× great-grandparents.

Tree says: Richard DeClifford Pattenden (1505–1562) married Anne De Stafford (1509–1559) in 1527 at Bobbing Court. Their children include Rowland, George (1535–1586), Henry Stafford Clifford, Richard, Edward, Catherine and Henrie de Clifford Pattenden (1542–1593, of East Peckham). Henrie is the ancestor of the Pattendens, and so of Mary Sophia Pattenden, who married Thomas Joseph Okill. However, the tree gives Henrie two sets of parents: Richard & Anne, and George De Clifford & Ursula Finch.

Item 1 — Lady Anne Clifford (Stafford), Geni profile

Item 2 — Sir Conyers Clifford, History of Parliament biography

Conyers is the grandson of Richard and Anne through their son George. If Henrie is George and Ursula's son, as one of the tree's parent links says, Conyers is Henrie's brother. If Henrie is Richard and Anne's son, Conyers is his nephew.

To check: which parents are right for Henrie. The History of Parliament and the Visitation of Kent pedigrees for Clifford of Bobbing should settle it. Also look for primary evidence (e.g. East Peckham parish registers, wills) that the East Peckham Pattendens really descend from the Cliffords. The "de Clifford Pattenden" double surname appears only in online trees, so treat the link as unproven.

Web research (Oct 2026): the George & Ursula parent link can almost certainly be ruled out on dates. Online pedigrees of Bobbing Court put George Clifford's birth about 1535, his marriage to Ursula Finch about 1560, and their sons Henry, Alexander and Conyers about 1561–1566, so they could not have had a son in 1542. Hasted's History of Kent (1798) says Richard Clifford was succeeded at Bobbing by his son George, who left seven sons and three daughters, with Henry the eldest as heir. Hasted never mentions a Pattenden or East Peckham. Richard & Anne remain possible parents for Henrie, but no source found supports the "de Clifford Pattenden" link itself. Sources: Bobbing Court pedigree (twentytrees.co.uk); Hasted, 'Parishes: Bobbing' (British History Online).

The Wright family of Felsted, Essex

Relationship to David Simpson: Jemima Mary Wright (1797–1868) is his great-great-grandmother, on his father's side. Her parents John Wright and Anne Archer are his 3× great-grandparents, John Wright and Mary Levings his 4× great-grandparents, and Nicholas and Ann Wright his 5× great-grandparents.

Tree says: Nicholas and Ann Wright were both of Felsted; Ann died there about 1742. Their son John Wright, born at Felsted in 1729, married Mary Levings and died on 25 Nov 1801. Their son John Wright, born at Felsted in 1757, married Anne Archer; their children included John (1784–1843), William Archer (1786), George (1788), Orpha (1790–1794), Joseph (1793), Edward (1795) and Jemima Mary, born at Felsted on 20 Jul 1797. Jemima married William Cliff, son of John Cliff and Margaret Elles (Chapter 1). Their son John Wright Cliff (1830 Boreham – Sep 1917 Romford), David's great-grandfather, carried the Wright name. Jemima died at Terling on 4 Mar 1868.

Item 1 — Wright family headstones, Felsted churchyard

Identified by the family as various Wright family headstones in the churchyard of Felsted church (Holy Cross, Felsted). It is a colour print, probably from the 1970s or 1980s. The lichen-covered stone in the centre is the one in focus, so it was probably the reason for the photo, but none of the inscriptions can be read in the scan.

To check: transcribe the inscriptions from the original print or on a visit, and match them to the Wrights in the tree; Felsted's burial registers (Essex Record Office, on Essex Archives Online) would date the burials. Also, the tree gives the elder John Wright's death (25 Nov 1801) as "Long Island City, Queens, New York", which is almost certainly wrong for a Felsted man and looks like a place copied from another family. Check his burial at Felsted.

Item 2 — Headstone of a Wright grave, Felsted churchyard

A kerbed grave with a small arched headstone, from the same set of colour prints. The name on the stone seems to read "… William Wright" (perhaps Charles William Wright), but the smaller lines can't be read in the scan.

Item 3 — Kerbstone of Ann and Anthony Bentall Wright

The kerbstone reads, as far as the scan allows: "… Ann Wright, wife of Anthony Bentall Wright, who died 2? August 190?, aged 8? years … also Anthony Bentall Wright …". Neither Ann nor Anthony Bentall Wright is in the tree yet. Bentall is an Essex surname, so it may be his mother's maiden name.

To check: read the full inscriptions on the originals; find Anthony Bentall Wright and Charles William Wright in the census and Felsted registers and see how they connect to Jemima's family — perhaps through one of her brothers, such as John (1784–1843).

Item 2 — Grave of Ann and Anthony Bentall Wright, Felsted

A low kerb-stone grave at Felsted, identified by the family as Anthony Bentall Wright's. A zoomed scan reads roughly: "In loving memory of Ann Wright, wife of Anthony Bentall Wright, who died 2[?] August 190[6?] aged 8[8?] years. Also of Anthony Bentall Wright … who died … 190[8?] …". The dates and ages are worn and uncertain. If Ann was about 88 in the 1900s, she was born about 1818, a generation after Jemima Mary.

To check: Anthony Bentall Wright isn't in the tree yet. Find where he fits (perhaps a son or grandson of one of Jemima's brothers) and confirm the dates from the stone or Felsted's burial register.

Chapter 1 — John Cliff and Margaret Elles (married 1792)

Relationship to David Simpson: John and Margaret are David's 3× great-grandparents, on his father's side, through his grandmother Clara Cliff.

Tree says: John Cliff (no dates) married Margaret Elles (1776 – Sep 1847) on 25 Oct 1792 at St Mary the Virgin, Great Dunmow, Essex. Their son William Cliff was baptised 28 Jan 1798 at Great Easton; he became a master coachmaker and married Jemima Mary Wright. Line down: William → John Wright Cliff (1830–1917) → Clara Cliff (1875–1959) → Clifford Simpson.

Item 1 — Marriage register, 1792 (Essex Record Office image)

Entry No. 126 (page 41, top right) reads:

John Cliff of the Parish of High Easter, Bachelor, & Margaret Elles of this Parish, Spinster, were Married in this Church by Banns this twenty-fifth Day of October in the Year One Thousand Seven Hundred and Ninety two. By me John Howlett, Vicar. This Marriage was solemnized between Us: John Cliff; Margaret Elles, her + mark. In the Presence of: James Morrill [?]; John Gunn.

Adds to the tree: John Cliff was of High Easter (a parish near Great Dunmow) and a bachelor; Margaret signed with a mark; the witnesses (John Gunn witnessed most weddings on these pages, so he was probably the parish clerk); the vicar, John Howlett.

To check: a baptism for John Cliff at High Easter (c. 1765–1772). The tree also gives William's father as a "William Cliff (1770)" in a second parents link, and has two William Cliff records (b. 1796 and b. 1798). Decide which is right and merge. Margaret's baptism in Great Dunmow would be c. 1776.

Web research (Oct 2026): a possible baptism for John. Another family historian has transcribed a Cliff family who lived between High Easter and High Roding. William Cliff and Elizabeth Campion married at High Roding on 7 Dec 1764. Their first child, Elizabeth, was baptised at High Easter in 1765, and the rest at High Roding: William (1766), Sarah (1768), Mary (1769), John (8 Sep 1771), Ann (1773), Phoebe (1775) and Joseph (1776). William senior was probably buried at High Roding in 1793, and Elizabeth there in 1814, aged 73. A John born in 1771 would have been 21 at the 1792 wedding, which fits a bachelor "of High Easter". The William born in 1766 might also explain the tree's stray "William Cliff (1770)" link. This is a lead, not proof: check the High Easter and High Roding registers, and whether this John stayed in the Dunmow area. Source: Cliff–Campion (Fay Sampson, Alan March's family history).

Item 2 — "John Cliff's House, Boreham"

Captioned in type "John Cliff's House Boreham". A plain two-storey brick house with a central front door, sash windows and a chimney, on a village street, with a white-rendered cottage beyond. The deckled-edge print looks 1940s–1950s. This is probably the house of John Wright Cliff (1830–1917), John and Margaret's grandson, who was born at Boreham in 1830.

To check: which John Cliff it was and where in Boreham the house stands; the 1841–1871 censuses for Boreham would give the address.

Chapter 2 — Edward Okill (town carter, Maidstone, 1850)

Relationship to David Simpson: not yet known, because Edward isn't in the tree.

Tree says: no Edward Okill of this generation. The Okills in Maidstone then were Samuel Okill (d. 1846) and Maria Barton's family, including William (c. 1829–1888) and George Henry (bap. 1842). There was also Thomas Joseph Okill (b. 1823, Dartford).

Item 1 — Phippen's Directory of Maidstone and its environs, 1850

The source is James Phippen, Enlarged Directory for Maidstone and its Environs (Maidstone: W. West, 1850). You saved it as a text file named "George Okill 1850", but the only Okill in it is Edward. It lists him twice:

• General list: "Okill, Edward, town carter, Union street"
• Trades list, Town Carters (p. 56): "Okill, Edward, Union street"

No George Okill appears in the directory.

To check: who Edward was — perhaps another son of Samuel and Maria (baptisms at Maidstone c. 1822–1835)? Look for him in the 1841 and 1851 censuses for Union Street, Maidstone.

Web research (Oct 2026): Union Street, where Edward lived in 1850, meets Wyatt Street, where Thomas Joseph Okill was born in 1848; Historic England lists a group of Union Street houses together with No 28 Wyatt Street. Living a street apart, Edward was very likely a relative, perhaps a brother of Thomas Joseph Okill senior (b. 1823). The 1851 census for Union Street and Wyatt Street should show both households. Source: 100 and 100A Union Street, Maidstone (British Listed Buildings).

Chapter 3 — John Perkins (1840–1910)

Relationship to David Simpson: David's great-grandfather, on his mother's side. John's daughter Florence Perkins was Irene Okill's mother.

Tree says: born 30 Jul 1840, Abbots Leigh, Somerset; son of John Perkins and Sarah Carter. He married Hannah Stitfall on 27 Jun 1868 at Abbots Leigh and was a joiner. He lived in St Paul, Bristol (1871), Bedminster (1881, 1891) and Bristol (1901). His daughter Florence Emily Louisa (1878–1927) married George Edwin Okill. Died June 1910, Williton, Somerset — marked "not fully certain".

Item 1 — Ancestry profile of a different John Perkins (saved 18 Dec 2009)

This is from the tree "Maggie's Den" (owner MargaretPreston52, Ancestry tree 6318692). This John Perkins is not yours:

This matters because your tree's death for John (June 1910, Williton) is in exactly the district where this John Perkins lived. The death was probably picked up from the wrong man.

To check: remove or re-verify the June 1910 Williton death. Search for the Bristol John Perkins's death after 1901 in the Bristol, Bedminster or Barton Regis districts, allowing for the fact that his wife Hannah died in 1907.

Chapter 4 — George Henry Okill (bap. 1842)

Relationship to David Simpson: probably David's 3× great-uncle, on his mother's side. That holds if George Henry's father, Samuel Okill, is the same Samuel as the father of Thomas Joseph Okill (b. 1823), David's great-great-grandfather. The tree has two separate Samuel Okill records, so this is not certain.

Tree says: baptised 27 Jun 1842, Maidstone, Kent; son of Samuel OKill (d. April 1846) and Maria Barton (d. July 1863), who married 24 Feb 1822 at Thornham, Kent. Brother of William Okill (c. 1829–1888). No occupation, marriage or death recorded.

Item 1 — Kent County Council minutes: Police Pensions Account, 19 Feb 1908

The source is Kent County Council Minutes, Kent Libraries & Archives, ref. CC/M/1/7 (Aug 1907 – Feb 1908). The PDF you saved is 89 pages; the entry is on printed page 268 (PDF page 81).

At the council meeting at Maidstone on 19 Feb 1908, the Finance Committee recommended paying pensioners out of the Police Pensions Account on 31 Mar 1908:

That's £25 a year, so he had retired from the Kent County Constabulary by 1908, aged about 65.

Adds to the tree: occupation (retired policeman, almost certainly Kent County Constabulary; rank unknown) and his pension in 1908, which shows he was alive in early 1908.

To check: his police service record (Kent Police Museum, or Kent Archives C/P series) for his joining date, rank and stations; the 1881–1901 censuses for him as a police constable; his death after 1908. The tree also has a George Okill b. 1856, son of Thomas Joseph Okill and Mary Pounall. The "Henry" and the age make the 1842 George the better fit, but confirm it.

Chapter 5 — Thomas Joseph Okill (1848–1933)

Relationship to David Simpson: David's great-grandfather, on his mother's side. He was Irene Okill's grandfather.

Tree says: born 9 May 1848, Wyatt Street, Maidstone; son of Thomas Joseph Okill (b. 23 Mar 1823, Dartford) and Mary Pounall (b. 15 Aug 1821). He married Mary Sophia Pattenden on 22 Nov 1874 at St James, Bermondsey. He was a lighterman in 1881, and later a vellum binder and account-book maker in St Olave's. He died 19 May 1933 in the Romford registration district. Ten children, including George Edwin (1877–1945), Irene Okill's father.

Item 1 — Another researcher's Ancestry tree (saved 18 Dec 2009)

This is from the tree "leanne" (owner Pauline_Thorne, Ancestry tree 14026147). It has no sources attached.

To check: his parents' birth years (1823/1821 in your tree vs 1827/1824 here), from their baptisms or the 1851 census; Edward's birth year (1883 or 1884).

Chapter 6 — Charles "Uncle Charlie" Simpson (1881–1935)

Relationship to David Simpson: David's great-uncle, a younger brother of his grandfather Ernest Simpson.

Tree says: born 1881, Romford, Essex; son of Solomon Simpson (1853–1923, Metropolitan Police constable) and Lucy Edy. He married Mary Ann Wheeler (1882–1975) in January 1901 at Romford, and died in October 1935 at Romford. No children are recorded. He was a younger brother of Ernest Simpson (1878–1951), Clifford Simpson's father.

Item 1 — "Charles Simpson", a family memoir

This Word document is written in the first person by a nephew of Charlie, a son of Charlie's older brother. The details fit Clifford Simpson (1915–2011): married in 1940, four years in the army, then moved to Greece. Summary of what it says:

• Family: Charlie was "the fourth son of Solomon Simpson and my father's younger brother", and a regular Sunday-lunch visitor from the writer's early childhood (c. 1918).
• Marriage: he separated from his wife before the writer was born. He "decided he had made a mistake early in the marriage and walked out on her", then spent the rest of his life avoiding her. Living "à la traveller", he probably dodged council registration and census forms.
• War: although of age, he somehow avoided military service in 1914–18.
• Home and work: a caravan on a plot in Wynklety [Wyncolls?] Lane, near Brentwood, Essex. He was a "wheeler dealer" with a pony and cart who attended the weekly poultry and general auctions at Romford, and probably dealt in scrap metal and rag-and-bone.
• The accident: driving his pony and cart home after drinking, on an unlit road, he knocked down and fatally injured a pedestrian. He was charged with manslaughter and tried at the Central Criminal Court (Old Bailey). The writer's parents paid for the leading barrister of the day, Sir Henry Curtis-Bennett, which used up all their savings. Charlie got six months' hard labour, served in Wormwood Scrubs, and never repaid them.
• Estrangement: he fell out with all his siblings except the writer's father.
• Last seen: he didn't attend the writer's wedding in 1940, and "the last time I saw him would have been sometime in 1939". The writer didn't know when or how he died.
• Verdict: "All my other Uncles were law abiding and dull conformists, Charlie was neither … Rogue he may have been, but in my eyes a lovable one."

Conflicts with the tree:

• Birth order: the tree lists Solomon's sons as Arthur (1877), Ernest (1878), Charles (1881), John (1885) …, which would make Charlie the third son. Either a son is missing from the tree or the memory is slightly out.
• Death: the tree has Charles dying in Oct 1935 at Romford, but the writer remembers seeing him in 1939. Either the 1935 death belongs to another Charles Simpson, or the memory is mistaken.
• Wife: Mary Ann Wheeler (m. 1901) is presumably the wife he walked out on. She lived to 1975.

To check: the Old Bailey trial. It was probably 1920s–30s, and Sir Henry Curtis-Bennett died in 1936, so the trial was before then. Newspapers (e.g. the Essex Times, Romford Recorder) would give the date, the victim's name and the verdict. The Central Criminal Court calendar (National Archives CRIM series) would too. Also check the 1939 Register for Charles Simpson near Brentwood, which would settle whether he was alive in 1939, and the death indexes after 1935.

Web research (Oct 2026): no online report of the trial was found. The Old Bailey Proceedings online stop in 1913, so a 1920s–30s trial needs the newspapers or the National Archives CRIM series. A separate point about Charlie's father: the tree calls Solomon Simpson a Metropolitan Police constable at Romford, but Romford was policed by the Essex Constabulary until it joined the Metropolitan Police District on 1 April 1965. Either Solomon served in a London division while living in Romford, or he was an Essex constable. His census entries and Met pension records (National Archives MEPO 21) would settle it. Source: Incorporation of Romford and Hornchurch into the Metropolitan Police District (The National Archives).

Chapter 7 — Clifford Simpson (1915–2011) and Irene Okill (1914–2009)

Relationship to David Simpson: his parents.

Tree says: Clifford Simpson was born on 4 Jul 1915 at Ilford, Essex, the son of Ernest Simpson and Clara Cliff. Irene Harriet Mary Okill was born on 24 Nov 1914, also at Ilford, the daughter of George Edwin Okill and Florence Emily Louisa Perkins. The tree records Clifford in Essex in 1939 and, after his war service, at Liverpool on 17 Jun 1957, at New York on 27 May 1959, and in Lagos. Irene died at Hammersmith on 13 Feb 2009, and Clifford at Hammersmith on 28 Oct 2011. Clifford wrote the memoir of his uncle Charlie (Chapter 6).

Adds to the tree: Cliff's war service, with the Bronze Cross (Athens, 1945); his career in oil, as Managing Director of BP for West Africa and Deputy Chairman of Shell-Mex in Nigeria (1954/55–1962); his return to England in 1962 after three coronary thromboses; and the family's homes in Lagos (two houses, 1955–1962), Canonbury and Stansted Mountfitchet (1962–1967) and Chelsea (1967–1980).

Item 1 — Bronze Cross ceremony, Athens, 31 December 1945

A ceremony in Athens on 31 December 1945 for recipients of the Bronze Cross and the Silver Cross. Clifford Simpson is in the back row, as a recipient of the Bronze Cross. The men stand around a white-haired civilian in a dark suit, in front of the Stars and Stripes and the Union Jack; one wears a turban, and several wear medal ribbons.

To check: Cliff's unit and service record, and the citation for his Bronze Cross (who awarded it and for what); who the civilian at the centre is. Which man in the back row is Cliff?

Item 2 — 12 Thompson Avenue, Ikoyi, Lagos (1958–1962)

Cliff and Irene's house in Lagos, Nigeria, where they lived from 1958 until they left Nigeria in 1962. The two colour prints show it from across the road, behind its fence, and closer to, with its verandah and garden. Ikoyi was the residential district favoured by expatriates and senior officials.

Cliff's work in West Africa: Cliff travelled to Nigeria from 1954 onwards and moved there permanently in 1955, as Managing Director of BP for West Africa, a territory that ran from the Gambia to Angola. He was also Deputy Chairman of Shell-Mex in Nigeria when the first oil was discovered in Nigeria — Shell-BP's find at Oloibiri, in the Niger Delta, in 1956. The first exports followed in 1958. The family moved into 12 Thompson Avenue in 1958 and stayed until 1962; the tree's records of Cliff at Liverpool (1957) and New York (1959) are journeys from Lagos: Liverpool was home leave, and New York a business trip.

Homes in Lagos and after: the family had one other house in Lagos before Thompson Avenue. In 1962, after three coronary thromboses, Cliff left Nigeria and returned to England. They lived at first in Canonbury, London, and at a house in Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex, before moving to 21 Cheyne Gardens, Chelsea, in 1967.

Item 3 — 21 Cheyne Gardens, Chelsea (1967–1980)

Cliff and Irene Simpson's London house between 1967 and 1980: a late-Victorian terrace in red and yellow brick, with a shaped Dutch gable and a balcony over a bay.

To check: the address of the first Lagos house (1955–1958); the Canonbury and Stansted Mountfitchet addresses and dates (1962–1967); where Cliff and Irene lived after leaving Cheyne Gardens in 1980. BP's archive (University of Warwick) would hold Cliff's appointment records.

Open questions and discrepancies

All the open questions and discrepancies are now kept in one list, the Discrepancies register in Library & Resources. Add new ones there, and mark each one as resolved once it has been dealt with.