[8] Rev. Patrick SIMPSON (Abt 1681-1780) was the third named Presbyterian Minister in the Dundalk Presbyterian Church (which was founded in 1650 and is one of the oldest non-conforming churches Ireland). He was born at Islay Scotland and Married Margaret McNEIL aka McNEILE etc. After stepping back from active ministering (over doctrinal issues), he became successful managing various leases in the area. His third daughter, Grizel, married John McNEIL.

• SOURCE: The Flurry Valley: Landlords and Society, 1659 – 1841. Don Johnston, Journal of the County Louth Archaeological and Historical Society, Part I was published in: Vol. 25, No. 3 (2003), pp. 246-62  Part II was published in: Vol. 25, No. 4 (2004), pp. 379-399; Part III was published in Vol. 26, No. 1(2005), pp. 5-26 Published by: County Louth Archaeological and History Society

Other deeds tie him into the COULTERs and BRADFORDs and I will be working on these soon. Rev. Patrick SIMSON (1661-1760) NOTE: The following two sources give two different death dates, but I am going with the death date of 1760 since the minister who succeeded SIMSON died in 1778. Corrections to the following sources are highlighted in red.. 

• SOURCE: Faughart Historical Society: SIMPSON. This Burying Place Erected/by Margaret Simson widow/to the Memory of the Late/Rev PATRICK SIMPSON/Dissenting Minister of/Dundalk who departed this/Life October the 5th 1780 aged/99 years. NOTE: This is a copy of the Ballymascanlan inscriptions as published in CLAHJ, vol 17, no. 4, (1972), pp 215-27
• SOURCE: Tempests Annual 1909 p.33 Dundalk Presbyterian Church. By W. M. Patteson. [NOTE: There are errors in this article. It was copied from John D'Alton and J.R. O'Flanagan, The History of Dundalk and its Environs. (Dundalk and Dublin, 1864), pp 310-11]. THE Dundalk Presbyterian Church was first organised in the year 1560 and among one of the oldest non-conforming congregations in Ireland. … [the third minister] was the Rev. Patrick Simpson, who held a high position in the Church. He was allied to the M'Neill family. It is recorded in local history that two brothers, Archibald and Malcolm M'Neill, officers in the army, landed at Dundalk in 1688, and fought in the great battle of Ballymascanlon [The McNeale brothers leased Ballymascanlan in 1693. The 1688 date is erroneous. There is no record anywhere of a battle at Ballymascanlan. The castle was burned by Phelim O’Neill as he retreated from Dundalk in 1642, it was never rebuilt.] and succeeded in taking the castle formerly occupied by the Scanlons [The Scanlons do not appear in any list of inhabitants of the area, it is definitely not a Co Louth name.] —a Celtic family, who were afterwards driven into exile. Soon after their settlement they brought over from the Island of Islay two Presbyterian Ministers, the Rev. Patrick Simpson and the Rev. Mr. Drummond, one of them to minister at Dundalk and other at Scanlon Castle, near which a Presbyterian church had been built on the ancient site of which the present church of the Protestant Episcopal Communion stands. [Revd Robert Drummond (abt 1738-1778) is obviously too young to have come to Ballymascanlan at the same time as Revd Patrick Simpson. He actually succeeded Simpson in Ballymascanlan. He died in 1778, aged 38 (another source says he died 78, but the research of Peter Crews, email 2012 March 21 is convincing, although since he was baptised in 1738, he may nave been closer to 40 years old). For his tombstone inscription see CLAHJ, vol. 17, no. 4, (1972), p. 218] The Minister's house and farm then occupied the site of the present residence of the MacNeill family, Mountpleasant. Archibald MacNeill gave £100—a large sum in those days—towards the building of the old Presbyterian church in Linenhall Street. Mr. Simpson died in 1760 [actually 1780], at the age of 99 years, and was succeeded by the Rev. Drummond, who also died in Dundalk in 1778, aged 38 years. His remains lie alongside those of his predecessors in the family burial ground the MacNeills.  
• Gravemarker:  SIMPSON. This Burying Place Erected/by Margaret Simson widow/to the Memory of the Late/Rev PATRICK  SIMPSON/Dissenting Minister of/Dundalk who departed this/Life October the 5th 1780 aged/99 years. SOURCE: http://www.faughart.com/inscriptions-page22352.html 
• In the 1829 publication, Ordination Service by the Dublin Eustace Street Congregation (page 64), we learn that Mr.  SIMPSON had not joined the ejected members till near the conclusion of the discussions, when he told the Senate that he observed much partiality in them, and he would have no more to do with them, but would take his lot with the nonsubscribers. His elder, Capt. McNeill, concurred with him in this determination. This generous adaptation of a persecuted cause shows a very noble mind. I have the pleasure of being acquainted with several descendents of this excellent man, who are not unworthy of their progenitor.
• The History of Dundalk and its Environs from the Earliest Historic Period. John D’Alton and James Roderick O’Flanagan. Dundalk. 1864. p311 it states that `he had no family`. Perhaps he had no sons.
• In the Kintyre Mag: Malcolm's daughter married Rev. Patrick  SIMPSON, the son of old Lachlan Buidhe's fifth daughter Isabel McNeill and her husband Rev. David  SIMPSON, Minister in Islay. Rev. Patrick was Minister of Dundalk. He was second of four Scottish Ministers in that charge. He became quite an extensive landowner and was in great demand as a preacher of Gaelic. He took part in the translation into Gaelic of a catechism and with others was charged with the task of preaching in Gaelic to Highland soldiers stationed in Dublin. http://www.kintyremag.co.uk/1999/27/page6.html
  He was one of the Non-Subscribing or New Light Presbyterians, one of 16 parishes in Antrim in 1725.