James Simson, born 1826, was a Scottish author, known for his works on Scottish gypsies, the puritan preacher John Bunyan, his biography of Charles Waterton; and for his first hand account of time spent in his childhood on a Lazaretto at Inverkeithing in Fife, Scotland.
James Simpson was born on January 4, 1826 in Inverkeithing in Fife, Scotland, to Walter Simpson. He spent much of his childhood at the Inverkeithing Lazaretto, a quarantine ship and one of only two in Scotland, before its decommissioning in 1835.