Editing Thomas Simpson (section)

==Biography==

Simpson was born in [[Sutton Cheney]], Leicestershire. The son of a weaver,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://numericalmethods.eng.usf.edu/anecdotes/simpson.html |title=Thomas Simpson |date=January 2003 |accessdate=8 April 2008 |publisher=Holistic Numerical Methods Institute}}</ref> Simpson taught himself mathematics. At the age of nineteen, he married a fifty-year old widow with two children.<ref>Stigler, Stephen M. The History of Statistics: The Measurement of Uncertainty before 1900. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1986.</ref> As a youth, he became interested in [[astrology]] after seeing a [[solar eclipse]]. He also dabbled in divination and caused fits in a girl after 'raising a devil' from her.  After this incident, he and his wife fled to [[Derby]].<ref>[http://www.cartage.org.lb/en/themes/Biographies/MainBiographies/S/SimpsonT/1.html Simpson, Thomas (1710–1761)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040824194507/http://www.cartage.org.lb/en/themes/Biographies/MainBiographies/S/SimpsonT/1.html |date=24 August 2004 }}</ref> He moved with his wife and children to [[London]] at age twenty-five, where he supported his family by weaving during the day and teaching mathematics at night.<ref>Stigler, Stephen M. The History of Statistics: The Measurement of Uncertainty before 1900. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1986.</ref>

From 1743, he taught mathematics at the [[Royal Military Academy, Woolwich]]. Simpson was a fellow of the [[Royal Society]]. In 1758, Simpson was elected a foreign member of the [[Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences]].

He died in [[Market Bosworth]], and was laid to rest in Sutton Cheney. A plaque inside the church commemorates him.