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ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Copyright 1997 All material contained at this site may not be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, storage in an informational retrieval system or otherwise, without prior written permission of the publisher. |
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General John Simpson (1729-1788) 1,2 John Simpson, originally from Massachusetts, was born March 1st 1728 and as a young man migrated to Beaufort County, North Carolina about 6 miles east of what is now Greenville. John named his new home Chattain. John Simpson married Elizabeth Hardee, b. 1738, daughter of Colonel John Hardee in 1759. He was one of the outstanding men of his day in North Carolina, having held many public offices at the behest of Governors Tryon and Martin and by the support of the citizens of the county. He was a member of the Committee on Public Safety, and its chairman. He was a Colonel of the militia, and a Brigadier General, and was one of the few men who attended all four Provincial Congresses. He was a member of the Assembly in 1760, 1764 - 69 and was a leader in having Beaufort County divided into Beaufort and Pitt Counties and served as Pitt Counties first Sheriff. He along with Richard Caswell and William Wilson, under an act of the Assembly, established the line between Pitt and Dobbs counties in 1763. He named Pitt County after his friend, Lord Pitt, and his Colonial home was called "Chattain" after his estate in England. He and his wife lived on this estate and are buried there. He was a member of the House in 1778 and 1779, but resigned on being elected to the State Council. Additionally he was a member of the Senate in 1781 and 1786 and of the House in 1782. His plantation and the old John Hardee one adjoined, and they are both on the north side of the Greenville-Washington highway. The remains of the old home are gone. The cemetery is located behind a modern brick ranch type house, and is located in a clump of trees in a large cultivated field, which was overgrown with brush in 1960. The tombstones are of native slate, the same pattern as used in the John Hardee cemetery. A railroad station and a little village nearby still bear his name.
1The Eastern North Carolina Hardy - Hardee Family in the South and Southwest by David L. Hardee PP 278-289. 2SKETCHES OF PITT COUNTY 1704 – 1910 Henry T. King; Edwards & Broughton Printing Company, Raleigh, NC. 1911 pp. 223-225.
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