Following the libel of John Stubbs, Sympson was among the city rectors summoned in 1579 by Dr William Aubrey to hear a proclamation against the spreading of civil disquiet by preachers, commanding them not to entangle themselves with secular matters.J. Strype, The History of the Life and Acts of Edmund Grindal (Clarendon Press, Oxford 1821), pp. 359-64, at p. 362 (Internet Archive). Sympson's will is informal, commencing: "I will not in any wise that Jane Sympson my daughter nor any goods of myne whiche after my deathe maie come to her, Doe come unto the custodie or possession of anie of the kindred of her Mother."Will of Edmund Sympson (P.C.C. 1580, Arundell quire). He adds that he might have trusted her grandmother, but she is too old to prevent his legacy from being "distracted per vicissitudines into many handes", and so entrusts all, including the daughter, to his father and brother. Comparatively little is known of his successor, John Jones, M.A., rector until 1585.Newcourt, Repertorium, p. 505, makes him the same person as John Jones, S.T.B., Rector of St Nicholas Acons 1612–1636. Special prayers were said after the earthquake of 1580. A lectureship was established at St Peter's in 1583.'London Parish Clergy', p. 382, citing Guildhall Library MS 645/1, fol. 114 recto. In 1584 the window over the south porch was repaired by which the waits gained access to the flat roof. Red wands were procured "for them that have the plague":Simpson, 'Parish of St Peter', pp. 257, 261, 265. in the late Elizabethan period London was afflicted with severe epidemics.
