Barbara Simpson

The grave of Barbara Simpson is in the south transept of Westminster Abbey, adjoining the modern memorial stones to John Masefield and W.H. Auden. The stone has been re-cut and the inscription reads:

Beneath this stone are deposited the remains of Mrs BARBARA SIMPSON who departed this life the second day of March 1795 aged 55 years. [a Latin line is then given and can be translated]: At what time shall they discover any like her? She died, indeed, with the weeping of many.

The above was the wife of James Simpson, Barrister at Law of the Middle Temple formerly His Majesty's Attorney General for South Carolina who departed this life the thirtieth day of November 1815 aged 78 years who was interred in the Temple Church, London.

The inscription about James was not added until 1863. Barbara died at Brompton after a "long and severe indisposition".