Excerpt from Life and Letters of John Arthur Roebuck: With Chapters of Autobiography She had to educate them, put them forward in the world, without assistance from her late husband's family or her own. A truly difficult task, and a trying and dangerous position. She was very beautiful, very clever, fascinating, and young. It is not wonderful that she was sought for by many, that she married soon. The husband she chose (Mr. Simpson) was, like herself, young and handsome, but of no position. In choosing his wife he was guided more by passion than by prudence. Whatever may have been his defects, I have every reason to respect him, and to be grateful to him for his uniform kindness to us, his stepsons, and to our mother, whom he ever treated with the utmost gentleness and loving courtesy. They were indeed a happy couple, as far as themselves were concerned. Fortune, however, did not befriend him. He was a merchant, and not successful; and after many schemes had been tried and failed, it was resolved that we should emigrate to Canada, which we did in the year 1815. The first years of my life, and the time I passed in America, so deeply affected my whole character, and went so far in forming the man, that I am induced to dwell somewhat longer on those years, and to describe more minutely the incidents of that time than I otherwise should do. My early life in England was, in its first years, the life of a child of polished society. My mother, in spite of her unwise marriage, retained her connection with her old friends, and much of my time was passed in the house of Mrs. Anne Boscawen, with whom my Aunt Eliza Tickell lived. Mrs. Boscawen's story was a romance. She, early in life, was engaged to my grandfather Tickell, and was by him jilted. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.