Los
Angeles County
Biographies
MRS. CONSTANCE DORIA DEIGHTON SIMPSON
A member of the Jones family, Mrs. Constance Doria
Deighton Simpson is well known in Los Angeles, for her father, John Jones, was
one of the city’s honored pioneers and a forceful factor in its upbuilding and
progress. A native of England, he was
born in 1800, and spent his early life in the city of London where he was
engaged in the shipping business in connection with the East India trade. At the age of forty-seven he set sail in his
own ship bound for Australia. From there
he made the long voyage to California, arriving at Monterey in 1848. Here he met David Jacks, one of the pioneers
of California, who was inspector of the port there. Mr. Jones first located in San Francisco. He made a visit to Los Angeles in 1851, and
liked the little pueblo so well that he decided to make his permanent home
here. Some years later, in 1861, with
his wife, son and daughter, he removed to Los Angeles. For a man of large affairs there were great
hazards in those days. The wreck of the
Laura Bevan, uninsured and loaded with his goods at the salt works, as Redondo
was then called, was one of the conspicuous reverses which the doughty
Englishman suffered at that time. With
the courage, energy and determination that overcome difficulties, Mr. Jones
rebuilt his business and developed considerable trade with Salt Lake City,
sending the merchandise by prairie schooner over the Fremont Trail. For many years before the advent of financial
institutions in Los Angeles he performed the function of a banker in affording
safe keeping for the bags of gold dust and money entrusted to his care by the
ranchers and citizens of that period. To
protect their funds he installed at his place of business in the Arcadia block
on Los Angeles Street, the only burglar and fireproof safe in the town at that
time. For a period of twenty years he
was regarded as one of the most prominent and progressive wholesale merchants
of the community. Called to public
office, he rendered to the city valuable service as president of the common
council in 1865, 1866 and 1871. With a
strong sense of duty and honor, he faithfully fulfilled every trust reposed in
him, whether of a public or private nature, and was a man whom to know was to
esteem and admire. He was a member of
Company G, Stevenson’s Regiment of U.S. Volunteers and
remained with the regiment until discharged in 1848.
In 1858, Mr. Jones was married in San Francisco to Miss
Doria Deighton, a native of Edinburgh, Scotland. Their first child, Mark Gordon Jones, was
born in San Francisco, December 28, 1859.
Two daughters followed: Caroline
Adelaide, born in San Francisco, and who was married to James B. Lankershim;
and Constance Doria Deighton, who was born November 5, 1866, in an adobe house
that Mr. Jones bought from Governor Downey in Los Angeles, and who became the
wife of Henry Williams Simpson. The
parents took a deep interest in community affairs and were liberal donors to charitable
institutions and all public projects of worth.
In one of the early newspapers appeared a rousing editorial calling the
citizens of the town severely to task for their failure to respond to the call
to the relief of the Chicago fire sufferers in 1871, noting the fact that only
three persons responded – Governor Downey, John Jones, and a stranger. Mr. Jones died in 1876, leaving his widow one
of the very wealthy women of city. She
was leader of the society of the old regime in Los Angeles and was noted for
her philanthropies. Her death occurred
in this city in 1908.
The son, Mark Gordon Jones, attended McClure Military
Academy in Oakland, but was compelled to discontinue his studies there because
of ill health. Later he was graduated
from the Los Angeles high school, afterward spending four years in St. Augustin
College at Benicia, California, Bishop Kip, being head-master, where he
completed his course in 1879. On the 11th
of February, 1885, he was married to Miss Blanche Emily McDonald, a daughter of
the Hon. Donald McDonald, who was senator of the Canadian parliament. Elected treasurer of Los Angeles county, Mark. G. Jones served acceptably for two terms,
retiring to take charge of his mother’s large estate. In 1906 he formed the Inglewood Cemetery
Association and served as its president.
A financier of high standing, he wisely controlled the destiny of the
Merchants Bank and Trust Company, which he organized in 1908, and was also
president of the Merchants Building Company.
He passed away in 1922 after a long, upright and useful life.
Caroline Adelaide Jones, the elder daughter of John
Jones, pursued her studies in Mills Seminary and upon graduation became the
wife of Colonel James. B. Lankershim, a member of one of the old families of California.
Constance Doria Deighton Jones, the youngest of the three
children born to Mr. and Mrs. John Jones, has spent much of her life
abroad. Her higher education was
acquired in France and England. In New
York city she was married to Henry Williams Simpson, a graduate of Harvard
University, class of 1885, then pursuing his law studies at Columbia
University. With his admission to the
bar, Mr. Simpson joined Freling H. Smith in the practice of law and soon won recognition
as one of the able attorneys of New York city.
To Mr. and Mrs. Simpson were born five children. The eldest, Doria Deighton Simpson, acquired
her education in France, and was married in New York City to Edgar
Higgins. Henry Richard Deighton Simpson,
the second in order of birth, attended Eton College, a noted English school,
for six years and following his return to America matriculated in Harvard
University. Leaving that institution
soon after the outbreak of the World war, he returned to England in 1914 and
entered the British Army. After military
training at Sandhurst he was gazetted to the Sixth (Inniskillen) Dragoons but
found the cavalry somewhat inactive, so he applied for a transfer to the Royal
Flying Corps. Qualifying for a pilot’s
license at Shoreham, a seaport in Sussex, he spent some time in Upavon,
Wiltshire, where he received his license, and in August, 1915, was ordered to
the front. On November 30, 1915,
Lieutenant Simpson was mentioned in despatches by Field Marshal Sir John D.P.
French for gallant and distinguished service in the field and was awarded the
1914-15 British War and Victory medals.
He was killed in active service and on December 20, 1916, was buried in
England with military honors. His name
was inscribed on the great memorial tablet at Eton and on a separate tablet in
the cloisters, near the end door, which opens to the playing field, where he
had won thirty-two cups. After his death
the king’s scroll and a large bronze medal, inscribed with his name and the words,
“He died for freedom and honor,” were forwarded to his parents, together with a
letter from Buckingham Palace, saying:
“I join with my grateful people in sending you this memorial of a brave
life given for others in the Great War,” signed “George R. I.” The name of Henry Richard Deighton Simpson is
also inscribed on the memorial tablet of the Bachelors
Club in London and in the memorial hall at Harvard University.
The second son, John de Coubertin Deighton Simpson, also
attended Eton and with his return to the country enlisted in the United States
Army. He was sent to an officers’
training camp and was about to receive his commission when the armistice was
signed. He married Katherine Starr
Butterfield, whose father, Justin Butterfield, of Washington D.C., and Long
Island, was one of the founders of the Chevy Chase Club, and was their first
M.F.H.
Douglas Deighton Simpson, the next in order of birth,
attended C. E. F., Stanford’s celebrated school, St.
Alban’s at Rottingdean, England and was entered for Eton, when war was
declared. He was brought to America and
entered the Groton School at Groton, Massachusetts, graduating in 1921. He then entered Trinity College at Cambridge,
England, where he was graduated with the Bachelor of Arts degree in 1925.
Constance Deighton Simpson, the youngest child, who was
named for her mother, when a child became a pupil at Miss Spence’s School in
New York city, afterward attending the Heathfield
School at Ascot, England and finished her education in the school of Mlle.
Ozanne at Paris, France. On the
completion of her studies, Miss Simpson made her debut in London and was
presented at the court of St. James by the wife of American Ambassador Kellogg.
Mrs. Constance Deighton Simpson has contributed liberally
of her energy and means to various charitable institutions in England and
America and is socially prominent in this country and abroad by reason of her
gracious manner and genuine worth.
Transcribed by
Mary Ellen Frazier.
Source:
California of the South Vol. V, by John Steven McGroarty,
Pages 731-735, Clarke Publ., Chicago, Los Angeles, Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2013 Mary Ellen Frazier.
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NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES BIOGRAPHIES