Lady Frances Ramsay Simpson: Brave and Long-Suffering

Portrait of Lady Frances Simpson, wife of George Simpson, Governor of Hudson’s Bay Company fur-trading business in Canada, circa 1830. Artist unknown. Fort Frances Museum Cultural Centre.

Married to a man over twice her age, Frances Simpson came to Canada by ship and to Manitoba’s Red River by canoe. Her life in Canada was lonely and difficult.

George Simpson was looking for a wife. The busy Governor of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s fur-trading business centred in Canada’s wilderness, George was respected and feared almost like Royalty. Having sown his wild oats with native “wives”, he fathered six children by them, according to the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online The children were kept at a distance from his own life – in his mind, they did not count. In his 40s, he needed a white woman and a Christian wedding to bring a sense of propriety to his life. On a trip to England, he asked his 18-year-old cousin Frances Ramsay Simpson to marry him. Frances agreed to wed the older man in but a few days’ time, not knowing what turns her life would take.

Frances Simpson’s Seasick Voyage to Canada

After providing a proper wedding for his new bride on February 24, 1830, the newlyweds set sail for Canada. This was Frances’ first time away from her large, loving family and the parting was very difficult for all of them. The voyage across the ocean was miserable for the bride; in the gales of storms, Frances was so dreadfully struck with motion sickness that her husband “thought she might never recover from exhaustion and lack of nutrition,” said James Raffan in his book, Emperor of the North. Landing at New York City and settling in for a short time, Frances recovered by the time they pressed on to Montreal.

Frances’ husband was a travelling Governor, criss-crossing the country constantly by canoe, horseback and stagecoach, checking on operations and bringing new goods to the HBC outposts. Expert at his job, George was a stern man, autocratic and, well… aggressive. He had managed to haul himself into the upper crust of society after being an orphaned, illegitimate child. On this trip, George was taking his wife to their new home in Rupert’s Land in the centre of Canada. (Rupert’s Land comprised a large part of Canada, from northern Quebec and northern Ontario, across all of Manitoba, most of Saskatchewan, the southern part of Alberta and portions into the far north.)

Governor George Simpson,
Hudson’s Bay Company head of Fur Trading business in Canada. Notman Photographic Archives/McCord Stewart Museum/I-7849940

Frances Simpson To Rupert’s Land by Canoe

Making their way across Canada by river in a 35-foot-long canoe, fifteen paddlers provided the manpower. Canoes were filled with trunks containing clothing, baskets with food and utensils, staples such as flour, sugar, butter and tea, plus a barrel of liquor, to keep up the paddlers’ spirits in bad weather. When any soggy walking was necessary to reach shore, the young Mrs. Simpson did not have to clamber across the bog or the mud, she was carried the the arms of burly workers. Her husband also did not have to risk muddy, wet boots – he too was carried on the back of a large man.

“Travelling through Lower and Upper Canada and west, over the Arctic Divide, into Rupert’s Land,” said James Raffan, the Simpsons finally reached the Red River post in Manitoba in June, 1830. A few weeks later, they travelled to Lac La Pluie, or the Rainy Lake post, about 80 kilometres east in Ontario. Frances thought the vicinity beautiful. “The establishment is delightfully situated,” she wrote in her diary, according to Virtual Museum Canada, “on the east bank of the river, overlooking a beautiful water fall to the south.” The post was renamed Fort Frances in her honour on September 25, 1830.

Ill and Bedridden in Red River

George immediately dove back to his work overseeing HBC business. By the next spring, Frances was expecting her first baby. She was terribly ill and bedridden in her Red River home for months. George altered his scheduled rounds so that he would be home when Frances gave birth, caring much more for his “official” wife than he did for the other women who bore his children. On September 2, 1831, baby George Geddes Simpson was born, fragile and unwell himself.

Seven months later, baby George died. His father wrote to a colleague that he and his wife were devastated and that he worried about Frances. “I much fear it will be long very long ere my poor wife will recover from the Shock which has already made sad ravages on her Health & spirits.” Frances did somewhat recover – expecting for a second time, she delivered a healthy baby girl, named Frances Webster Simpson. The Simpsons packed up and returned to Frances’ family home in England in 1834. George came back to Canada the next year, but Frances and her baby did not return until until 1838.

More Children for Frances and George Simpson

Though George was only occasionally home, Frances was again pregnant in 1841, giving birth while her husband was far away. Baby Gussy was thought stillborn, but the gentleman guiding the delivery managed to bring her back to life. On a world tour of business, her father did not meet his new daughter until she was 14 months old. The Simpsons had two more children: Margaret, in 1843, and their only living son, John Henry Pelly Simpson, in 1850.

Lady Frances Ramsay Simpson

Having enough of the pioneering Red River lifestyle, the Simpson family moved across country to the HBC Headquarters in the village of Lachine, Quebec, nine miles away from Montreal. Life for Frances must have been lonely and difficult. Her husband not particularly warm and loving, and he spent more time away than at home. Recognized for his dedicated work with the Hudson’s Bay Company, George was knighted in 1841 by Queen Victoria, said Absolute Astronomy. Even more authoritative with the honour, he was Sir George Simpson and his wife, Lady Frances Simpson.

Throughout her time in Canada, Frances was unwell, having contracted a lung disease causing gasping for breath and discomfort. Tuberculosis claimed Frances’ life on March 21, 1853. She was only forty years old. Lady Frances Ramsay Simpson was buried in Montreal’s Mount Royal Cemetery.

Source:

Raffan, James, Emperor of the North: Sir George Simpson and the Remarkable Story of the Hudson’s Bay Company, Harper Collins Publishers Ltd., 2007.

This article first appeared on Suite101.com in October 2009. (C) Susanna McLeod