Robert Simpson

Robert Simpson started his business life as a 22-year-old shop boy in a Main St. general store in Newmarket, and finished it as founder and owner of one of Canada’s greatest mercantile empires.

As a boy Robert worked in his father’s general store in Inverness, Scotland and when he immigrated to Canada he chose Newmarket as his home because a cousin, Mrs. James Sutherland, already lived here. Robert went to work in the Sutherland family store, D. Sutherland & Sons.

After two years, Simpson and friend William Trent founded Simpson & Trent Groceries, Boots, Shoes and Dry Goods. That was in 1858 and they opened on the north-west corner of Main and Timothy Sts. In 1862 Trent went his own way and Simpson took M.W. Bogart as a partner. A shrewd businessman, Simpson became noted among farmers for borrowing from them in the fall, giving notes for the loans against which the farmers bought merchandise from his store during the lean winter and spring months. To sweeten the pot, he paid 10 per cent to 15 per cent interest against the prevailing 6 per cent bank rate. He still came out ahead because the farmers invariably overspent the notes and wound up indebted to the store.

Before fire destroyed their store in October, 1870 the firm had moved to larger premises across the street. Within two months, Simpson dissolved the partnership, rebuilt and reopened as the Robert Simpson Co. The following June he moved again, this time to Queen St. in downtown Toronto. From that beginning, The Robert Simpson Co. grew into a national department store chain and made Robert one of the wealthiest merchants in Canada.

- Terry Carter