John Simpson (Lower Canada politician)

Public official and politician in Lower Canada

John Simpson (1788 – April 21, 1873) was a government official and political figure in Lower Canada (now Quebec). Elected to the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada in 1824, he supported Governor General Lord Dalhousie in his disputes with the Assembly over popular control of the provincial government. During the Lower Canada Rebellion he supported the government, but treated the Patriotes with generosity and respect. He recommended amnesty for most of the Patriotes, with exile to Bermuda for the leaders. Simpson served one term in the new Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada, voting in favour of the union and again generally supporting the Governor General.

Simpson was born in England in 1788. His wife, Zipporah Tickell, was the widow of Ebenezer Roebuck, a former British colonial administrator in India. Unsuccessful as a farmer and a merchant, in 1815 Simpson emigrated to Upper Canada (now Ontario) with his wife, and probably with all six of his step sons. They initially settled in Augusta Township. In 1819, he became a private secretary for Lord Dalhousie, the Governor General of Lower Canada. In 1822, he was appointed customs inspector and overseer of His Majesty's locks at Coteau du Lac in Lower Canada. A port on the north shore of the River St. Lawrence, Coteau du Lac was west of Montreal, on the Coteau du Lac canal. Simpson received a commission in the local militia and was a churchwarden in the local protestant church.

In 1824, Simpson stood for election to the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada. Although he had only been in the area for two years, Simpson had gained considerable popularity with the French Canadian community in the district and was elected to the Assembly, representing York County. In the Assembly, he was a member of the Parti des bureaucrats, and a strong supporter of Dalhousie in his disputes with the elected Legislative Assembly. In the election of the Speaker of the Assembly which opened the first session, he voted unsuccessfully against Louis Joseph Papineau, the leader of the French Canadian nationalist party, the Parti canadien. During the heated politics of the 1830s, Simpson favoured the moderate reform cause, influenced in part by one of his step sons, John Arthur Roebuck, who was the agent for the Lower Canada Assembly in Britain, and at some points was a member of the British House of Commons.

On the outbreak of the Lower Canada Rebellion in 1837, Simpson organized volunteers from the area to prevent the fort at Coteau du Lac from falling into the hands of the Patriotes. He received formal thanks from Sir John Colborne, the interim governor general, for his actions. At the same time, his fair treatment of those in arms was recognised by the Patriotes, to the point that one Patriote leader, Jean Joseph Girouard, with a price on his head of £500, surrendered personally to Simpson on Christmas Day, 1837. Girouard publicly recognised Simpson for "the generous and prudent treatment of the persecuted Canadians which he ensured in his area." Simpson again tried his hand at politics. In the elections for the new Parliament in 1841, Simpson was elected to the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada for Vaudreuil, a riding which covered some of the same territory as his previous riding of York. He campaigned in favour of the union, and defeated an anti union candidate, André Jobin. This time, it was Simpson's supporters who used electoral violence; at one point Jobin had to jump out of a window to escape them. In the first session of the new Assembly, the union of the Canadas was one of the major issues. John Neilson, a leader of the French Canadian Group, introduced a motion condemning the way the union had been imposed on Lower Canada. Simpson supported the union and voted against the motion, which was defeated. However, he was also a co sponsor of a motion calling for the inclusion of French Canadian members in the government; at the time, only English speaking Canadians were members of the Executive Council. Simpson had some reform tendencies, but he generally supported the Governor General during the Parliament. After surrendering to Simpson during the Rebellion, Girouard had been imprisoned without trial for several months. On his release, he had withdrawn from politics. In 1842, Simpson was part of a delegation of members of the Assembly who approached Girouard and urged him to re enter politics, but Girouard declined. In the major dispute over responsible government in the 1843 session, Simpson voted in support of the Governor General, and opposed the position of Louis Hippolyte LaFontaine and Robert Baldwin. Simpson did not stand for re election in 1844. In 1845 he was appointed to the Rebellion Losses Commission, set up to assess claims for compensation by individuals whose property had been damaged in the rebellions. When the Commission wrapped up in 1851, his work on the Commission was the target of criticism from the Montreal Gazette.

Simpson retired to Brockville where his son was customs collector. He later died in Kingston in 1873. His stepson, John Arthur Roebuck, summed up Simpson: "He was a daring and sanguine man and indulged in schemes that would have terrified a more sober minded one."