(died 18 May 1884, aged 77 or 78), physician. (The Black Doctor, and this name also in Gaelic; James Simpson, M.D.) Born at Demerara, British Guiana. He is said to have been a black. If so, he was the first black professional in GC. He is also said (Harkness) to have been a graduate of the University of Edinburgh. It has not been possible, however, to identify him with any probability with any of the several James Simpsons who attended the University of Edinburgh at about the right time. It is possible that the information about his graduation from the University of Edinburgh was mistaken. He was married to Elizabeth Malcolm, a native of Edinburgh. They are said to have lived in Outlewell, Morayshire, Scotland, where he, presumably, had a medical practice. The place named was probably “Outlaw-well” or “Outlawell,” about 9 miles from Forres, but if so, it has not been possible to trace him there. Dr Simpson came to Canada in 1833. Having settled first at Lachute, Que., he came to Alexandria in 1842. The Glengarry News Christmas Supplement of 1903, prepared at a time when authentic information should have been available, stated that “The first physician to practice in the village [of Alexandria] was the late Doctor Simpson, who came here in 1842.” Dr Simpson was a Presbyterian. His widow, surviving him by a few years, died at Alexandria on 4 Jan. 1887, aged 76. Dr Simpson and his wife are buried in the Protestant cemetery on Main Street, Alexandria. They were the parents of John Simpson and the grandparents of James O. and William J. Simpson. Dr Simpson and his wife were the founders of one of Alexandria’s long-lived merchant dynasties. Altogether, the Simpsons were a presence in Alexandria for nearly a century.

     Dr Simpson himself, however, remains a shadowy figure. Exactly the same is true, it must be stressed, for many Alexandrians, prominent in their community, who lived in Alexandria during Dr Simpson’s more than four decades there. A half-century ago a man at McCrimmon West, on the GC-Prescott border, Alex the brother of Johnny Archie MACRIMMON, had anecdotes about a pioneer physician called “the Black Doctor,” who used to say that there would be more sickness among the people once the forests were cleared. It does not necessarily follow that these anecdotes related to Dr Simpson of the present article. The term “Black Doctor” may have been applied to more than one pioneer physician in the GC area of Eastern Ontario. There is said to have been a “Black Doctor” at Vankleek Hill. Perhaps the term Black in this name derives only from the Highland Scottish habit of terming people Dubh (black, dark) or Ban (fair). It was perhaps through an echoing of the old pioneer name of Black Doctor that as late as the 1920s Dr Charles A. Stewart at Dunvegan was called “the Black Doctor.”

     And in fact, we do have a record, if a late and by no means favourable one, that Dr Simpson of Alexandria also attended to patients at Dunvegan. An extract, dated 1942, from the Dunvegan Tweedsmuir history states: “There was no resident doctor at Dunvegan in the early days… At Alexandria lived Dr. Simpson (Doctor Dhu, the Black doctor) who also administered to the ills of the [Dunvegan] villagers. When you went for him you took two horses–one for him to travel on. Then he was very often under the influence of liquor so he’d have to sober up before making the journey. On his return trip two horses accompanied him too–someone had to bring back the horse the doctor rode.” This is the only reference that has been found to the doctor having a drink problem. The failing was not uncommon among pioneer physicians, and for that reason is so easily imputed to a particular physician as identities blur in anecdotal history that a single reference such as this must be taken with caution.

     J.G. Harkness evidently sought out unpublished material on Dr Simpson for the biographical sketch in Harkness’ history. Harkness records that the home Dr Simpson built in Alexandria, at the corners of Kenyon and Ottawa Streets, was at the time of Harkness’ writing occupied by Dan (called Big Dan) MacGillivray (for Big Dan, see Dr John Duncan McGillivray). Harkness does not mention that Dr Simpson was black. Dr Simpson’s grandson, James R. Simpson, Harkness notes as being clerk treasurer of SDG in the 1920s. Dr Simpson died just as Alexandria was leaving its status as a backwoods village and was entering upon the remarkable boom period which the town enjoyed between the coming in of the Canada Atlantic Railway in the early 1880s and the decline of Alexandria’s industries about the time of WWI. His daughter Miss Barbara Simpson, who died in 1936, was the “last surviving member of the family [i.e., of the children] of the late James Simpson, M.D.” (her obituary Glengarry News 7 Feb. 1936)

     With regard to GC and the history of blacks in Dr Simpson’s time, it may also be noted that on 3 Sept. 1875 Jessie Stewart from Baltics Corners, near Dunvegan, was married at Dunvegan by the Rev. Kenneth Mcdonald, the Presbyterian minister of Alexandria, to Henry Blake Wright, JP, of Montreal, who has been remembered as being “a coloured man.”

Harkness 449-450 * gravestone & MacMillan diary for dates of death of Simpson, wife * Elliott 285 (place of birth Demerara) * evidence that Dr Simpson was black includes a statement of Campbell Fraser (C.C. Fraser) in conversation with present author, 13 May 1978 (Fraser was a well-informed authority on area history, disinclined to exaggeration, and was a friend of the Simpson family) * Lovell 1857 539 (James Simpson, M.D., Alexandria) * Tweedsmuir: Glengarry Life 1989 * death of Dr Simpson’s widow: DTL Standard Freeholder 4 Jan. 1947 based on Cornwall Freeholder of 7 Jan. 1887 * Henry Blake Wright: marriage, True Witness 10 Sept. 1875; information to pr author 11 April 1977 from Elizabeth (Lizzie) Blair (QF); Campbell (1990), 112