George Simpson (administrator) - Career

Career

This was at the time of conflict between the HBC and the Northwest Company. Governor William Williams, who had been sent out in 1818, had arrested or captured several Northwest Company men. The Nor'Westers replied with a Quebec warrant for Williams' arrest. The London governors were unhappy with Williams' clumsy management and both companies were under British pressure to settle their differences. The "locum tenens" in Simpson's title meant that if Williams had been arrested Simpson would take his place

He went by ship to New York, by boat and cart to Montreal and left by the usual route for York Factory on Hudson Bay. He met Williams at Rock Depot on the Hayes River. Since Williams had not been arrested he was William's subordinate and was sent west to Fort Wedderburn on Lake Athabaska. There he spent the winter learning about, and reorganizing, the fur trade. On his return journey in 1821 he learned that the two companies had merged. This put an end to a ruinous and sometimes violent competition and converted the HBC monopoly into an informal government for western Canada. He escorted that year's furs to Rock Depot and returned upriver to Norway House for the first meeting of the merged companies. There he learned that he had been made governor of the Northern (that is, western) Department and Williams had been made his equal in the Southern Department south of Hudson Bay. (In December 1821 the HBC monopoly was extended to the Pacific coast.) After the meeting he returned downstream to take up his duties at York Factory. In December 1821 he set out on snowshoes for Cumberland House and then the Red River Colony. By July 1822 he was back at York Factory for the second meeting of the Northern Council, the first that he chaired. After the meeting he went by water to Lac Île-à-la-Crosse and then by dog sled to Fort Chipewyan and Fort Resolution on the Great Slave Lake. He then went south to Fort Dunvegan on the Peace River and then Fort Edmonton and after the thaw, back to York Factory.

In August 1824 he left York Factory for the Pacific, taking the unorthodox Nelson River - Burntwood River route and ascended the Churchill River and Athabasca Rivers to Jasper House at the east side of Athabasca Pass. He crossed the pass on horseback to Boat Encampment and then down the Columbia River reaching its mouth at Fort George on November 8. This 80-day journey was 20 days faster than the previous record. He moved the headquarters of the Columbia District to Fort Vancouver, guessing that the south side of the river might fall to the Americans. He left in March 1825 and crossed the snow-covered Athabasca Pass. From Fort Assiniboine he went on horseback 80 miles south to Fort Edmonton on the North Saskatchewan River. (He had ordered this new road laid out on his outward voyage. It was a major saving over the old Methye Portage route.) He went overland 500 miles on horseback from Fort Carlton to the Red River settlements and then by boat to York Factory. During this trip his servant, Tom Taylor, became separated on a hunting trip. After searching for half a day, Simpson left Taylor to his fate. Taylor reached the Swan River post after 14 days in the wilderness with no proper equipment.

In 1825 he returned to Britain and learned that William Williams had retired, thereby adding the eastern area to his domain. Returning to Montreal, he went to the Red River settlements, Rock Depot for the annual meeting, the posts on James Bay to inspect his new domain, and back to Montreal. In May 1828 he started his second trip to the Pacific along with his dog, mistress and personal piper, going first to York Factory and then using the Peace River route. This 5000-mile trip remains the longest North American canoe journey ever made in one season. He returned via Athabasca Pass to Moose Factory and Montreal and immediately went south to New York and took ship to Liverpool. After a brief courtship he married his first cousin, Francis Ramsay Simpson (February 1830) and returned with his new wife to New York, Montreal, Michipicoten, Ontario for the annual meeting, York Factory and Red River. Here his wife gave birth to his first legitimate child, who soon died. In May 1833 he suffered a mild stroke. He and his wife returned to Scotland, where she remained for the next five years and gave birth to a baby girl who lived. In the spring of 1834 he returned to Canada and attended the Southern Council at Moose Factory in May and the Northern Council at York Factory in June, inspected posts on the Saint Lawrence and arrived in England in October 1835. In the summer of 1838 he went to Saint Petersburg and negotiated with Ferdinand von Wrangel of the Russian-America Company. The Russians recognized the HBC posts and the HBC agreed to supply the Russian posts. He then went to Montreal, Red River, Moose Factory, Montreal, the Saint Lawrence posts, Montreal and down the Hudson to New York and took ship to England where he received from Queen Victoria the title of Knight Bachelor which made him a non-hereditary "Sir" (January 1841).

Circumnavigation: He left London in March 1841 and went by canoe to Fort Garry (Winnipeg). On this part of the trip he was accompanied by James Alexander, 3rd Earl of Caledon who left to hunt on the prairie and published a journal. Travelling on horseback to Fort Edmonton he passed a wagon train heading for the Oregon country - a sign of what would soon destroy his fur trade empire. Instead of taking the usual route he went to what is now Banff, Alberta and made the first recorded passage of Simpson Pass (August 1841) and went down the Kootenay River to Fort Vancouver. Guessing that the 49th parallel border would be extended to the Pacific and considering the difficulties of the Columbia Bar he proposed to move the HBC headquarters to what is now Victoria, British Columbia, a move that earned him the enmity of John McLoughlin who had done much to develop the Columbia district. He took the Beaver (steamship) to the Russian post at Sitka, Alaska and then another boat as far south as Santa Barbara, California stopping at the HBC post of Yerba Buena, California on San Francisco Bay. At some point he met Mariano Vallejo. He sailed to the HBC post in Hawaii (February 1842) and back to Sitka where he took a Russian ship to Okhotsk (June 1842). He went on horseback to Yakutsk, up the Lena River by horse-drawn boat, visited Lake Baikal, went by horse and later carriage to Saint Petersburg and reached London by ship at the end of October 1842.

Later years: By this time Simpson and his wife had a large house on the Lachine Canal across from the depot from which the fur brigades started west. He began investing in railroads and canals. In the spring of 1845 he went to Washington, DC to discuss the Oregon boundary with the Americans, something he had already done with Sir Robert Peel. In 1846 the Oregon Treaty established the current border. His wife contracted tuberculosis in 1846 and died in 1853. His annual trips west need not be listed. In 1854 he was able to travel by rail to Chicago before boarding his voyageur canoe at Sault Ste. Marie. In 1855 he was in Washington DC discussing Oregon affairs and in 1857 defended the HBC monopoly in London. In May, 1860 he went by rail to Saint Paul, Minnesota, decided that his health would not bear the trip to Red River, and returned to Lachine. In August 1860 he entertained the Prince of Wales at Lachine. Shortly after he suffered a massive stroke and died six days later.