William Dunlap Simpson was an American lawyer and politician. He served as the 78th Governor of South Carolina and Chief Justice of the South Carolina Supreme Court.
Background
Willian Simpson was born on October 27, 1823, in Laurens District, South Carolina, United States. He was the son of Elizabeth Satterwhite and John Wells Simpson, a successful physician, and the grandson of John Simpson, a Scotch-Irish Presbyterian who emigrated from Belfast, Ireland, to Laurens shortly after the American Revolution and became a wealthy planter and merchant.
Education
After studying at the Laurens Academy Simpson entered South Carolina College, now the University of South Carolina, and graduated in 1843. He entered the Harvard Law School but withdrew after a single session and returned home, where he continued his studies in the office of Henry Young.
William Dunlap Simpson was successful in law and was elected to the state legislature. Appointed an aide to Milledge Luke Bonham at the secession of South Carolina, he participated in the siege of Fort Sumter and the first battle of Manassas. He aided Samuel McGowan in the organization of the 14th South Carolina Volunteers, which became a part of Gregg's Brigade, became a major and subsequently lieutenant-colonel, and fought in important battles in Virginia. He was slightly wounded at Germantown, and the bow of his cravat was shot away at Cold Harbor. His popularity among the soldiers and the men at home led to his election in 1863 to the Confederate Congress, in which he served until the end of the war.
After the war, Simpson practiced law at Laurens with his brother, John Wistar Simpson. In 1868 he was a delegate to the National Democratic Convention and was elected to the federal Congress but was denied a seat on the grounds that he was disqualified under the Fourteenth Amendment.
In 1876 he became a Democratic candidate for lieutenant-governor and accompanied Wade Hampton on a memorable tour of the counties of South Carolina. As the presiding officer of the Senate Simpson refused to take the oath of office a second time at the behest of the Republican majority of the Senate, and he engineered the organization of that body in such a way as to obtain a Democratic majority.
In 1878 the Democrats obtained his re-election without serious opposition. Immediately thereafter he became acting governor as a result of the illness of Governor Hampton and became governor when Hampton resigned at the beginning of the following year to become United States senator.
In August 1880, two months before his term as governor expired, he resigned to become chief justice of the state and served until his death.
Achievements
Religion
William was an elder in the Presbyterian church.
Politics
Simpson was a member of the Democratic party. He supported the Davis administration in the first House but turned against it in the second.
Views
In his messages to the legislature, Simpson urged educational progress, and he aided in the creation of a state agricultural bureau.
Although well trained in the knowledge of adjudicated cases he sought also to analyze the underlying principles of the law. During his service on the supreme court, his convictions and example were important in upholding the constitutional provision that forbade circuit judges to instruct juries as to their own opinions on the facts in any case.
Personality
William was described as wellborn and handsome, pious and patriotic, competent but not brilliant. Simpson accepted the opinions of his class and justified the series of honors conferred upon him because of conscientious service.
Connections
In March 1847 Simpson married Jane Elisabeth Young. They had eight children.