Geddes Mackenzie Simpson

London sugar broker of Tower Street, former partner of James Webster. George Green, the Official Assignee of Webster & Simpson, counterclaimed 'for himself' for the compensation on Belle Vue in British Guiana alongside the creditor assignees of Webster & Simpson.

1. James Webster and Geddes Mackenzie Simpson were bankrupt in 1820.

2. Geddes Mackenzie Simpson was father of Wemyss Mackenzie Simpson (1824-1894), Frances Ramsay Simpson and both uncle and father-in-law of George Simpson (d. 1860), a governor of the Hudson's Bay Company who began his commercial career in Geddes Mackenzie Simpson's brokerage.

3. Will of Geddes Mackenzie Simpson broker of Tower Street City of London proved 20/01/1849. In the will Mackenzie explains that having had to 'rear and educate' a large family, his estate is limited, comprising largely two life assurance policies with the Equitable and the York. His nephew George Simpson of the Hudson Bay Company was one of his executors.

4. A note book from 1851 written by Webster Simpson, one of the sons of Geddes Mackenzie Simpson, includes notes from various family bibles listing Geddes' baptism as 04/02/1775 and his death on 27/12/1848 'at his residence on Stamford Hill.' Geddes Simpson had married Francis Hume Hawkins at St Dunstan-in-the-East, London, 31/08/1805. They had 15 children (with 2 dying young). They lived at 73 Great Tower Street, London (where Geddes Simpson had his sugar brokerage business on the ground floor) up until around 1816 and then at New Grove House, Bromley St Leonard.

T71/885 British Guiana no. 658.

1. London Gazette 17660 16/12/1820 p. 2365.

2. Dictionary of Canadian Biography online John S. Galbraith, Simpson, Sir George, governor of the HNC, author and businessman'; ibid Sylvia van Kirk,'Simpson, Frances Ramsay (Simpson, Lady Simpson), diarist.' The former suggests that Simpson's brokerage Graham & Simpson had merged with that of Andrew Colvile (ne Wedderburn) c. 1812. Ancestry.com, England, Select Marriages, 1538–1973 [database online]. Email from Simon Paul, 15/07/2015.

3. PROB 11/2087/106.

4. Email from Simon Paul, 15/07/2015.

We are grateful to Simon Paul for his assistance with compiling this entry.