Ambrose Simpson (b. circa 1807 - d. ?)
MSA SC 5496-51371
Maryland State Colonization Society Emigrant to Liberia from Charles
County, 1835
Biography:
Ambrose Simpson was manumitted by George D. Parnham of Charles County on January 31, 1835.1, 2 The Maryland State Colonization Society noted in their list of manumissions that Ambrose had emigrated to Liberia on the schooner Harmony on June 28, 1835. At the time of the 1830 U.S. census, Parnham owned fifty-five slaves, manumitting sixteen of them, including Ambrose, in 1835.3 Only one other manumitted slave, a fifteen-year old girl named Matilda, emigrated to Liberia, suggesting that Parnham did not set emigration as a condition of manumission.
In 1834, the Maryland State Colonization Society purchased land around Cape Palmas, naming this new colony Maryland in Liberia. The Simpson family arrived at Cape Palmas, Liberia on August 23, 1835. The family included Ambrose's wife, Mary Ann, and their two children, Edward and Letty Ann, who had all been freed by Henry B. Goodwin, a Charles County slave owner.4 They were also accompanied by Cecilia Ann Hanson, a thirteen year old girl manunitted by Goodwin, who remained in their household in Liberia.5, 6 Ambrose worked as a rough carpenter and sawyer.7, 8, 9, 10 By 1848, the Simpsons had at least three more children living in their household: Margaret (b. circa 1838), Josiah (b. circa 1841), and George (b. circa 1846), and Samuel H. (b. circa 1848).11, 12 Ambrose was elected councilor in 1846 and 1848. He left the Methodist Church to join the Episcopal Church in 1847. The following year he was expelled from the Episcopal Church for having an affair and an illegitimate child with Hannah Ireland, a widow.13 Despite his fall from grace, by 1853, Ambrose had regained enough stature in the community to be elected to the constitution framing committee as Maryland in Liberia was transforming from a colony into an independent republic. The group of nine men wrote a constitution, based on those of the United States and Maryland, that formed the foundational document for the new nation.14
3. U.S. CENSUS RECORD (Census Record, MD) for Geo D. Parnham, 1830, Charles County, Bryantown, Page 159a. 159b.
5. Ibid.
6. Hall, Richard L. On Afric’s Shore: A History of Maryland in Liberia, 1834-1857. (Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 2003), 451.
13. Hall, 451.
14. Ibid, 371-372.
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