Wallis Simpson

Birth Name: Bessie Wallis Warfield

Date of Birth: 19 June, 1896

Place of Birth: Square Cottage, Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania, U.S.

Date of Death: 24 April, 1986

Place of Death: 4 route du Champ d’Entraînement, Paris, France

Ethnicity: English, small amount of Scottish, remote French Huguenot, Dutch, Irish, Welsh, and Cornish

Wallis Simpson, also known as Wallis, Duchess of Windsor, was an American woman. She was married to Edward VIII, from 3 June, 1937, until 28 May, 1972, his death. Edward VIII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, both from 20 January, 1936 to 11 December, 1936, and abdicated the throne in order to marry her. His status as titular head of the Church of England conflicted with his impending marriage, as the Church disapproved of the King being married to a divorcée with living former husbands.

Wallis was born in Square Cottage, a summer resort located in Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Alice (Montague) and Teackle Wallis Warfield. Her parents both had deep roots in Maryland, going back to the 1600s. Her uncle, father’s brother, was S. Davies Warfield (Solomon Davies Warfield), a prominent railroad executive and banker. Edward VIII was later Governor of The Bahamas, from 1940 to 1945.

At the time of her engagement to Edward VIII, Wallis had been divorced from Earl Winfield Spencer, Jr., a pioneering U.S. Navy pilot, and was preparing to divorce (and later did) her then-husband, stockbroker Ernest Simpson (Ernest Aldrich Simpson). Ernest’s own father, Ernest Louis Simpson, who was Jewish, had changed the surname from Solomon to Simpson.

She was Time Magazine’s Person of the Year for 1936.

Wallis’ patrilineal line can be traced to Richard Warfield, who was born, c. 1647, in London, England.

Wallis’s paternal grandfather was Henry Mactier Warfield (the son of Daniel Warfield and Nancy Ann Mactier). Henry was a flour merchant, and director of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. Daniel was the son of Benjamin Warfield and Arianna/Ariana Dorsey. Ann was the daughter of Alexander Mactier, who was Scottish, and of Frances Crane, who was born on Barbados.

Wallis’s paternal grandmother was Anna W. Emory (the daughter of Richard Emory and Anna Gittings). Richard was the son of Thomas Lane Emory and Elizabeth Hopewell. Wallis’s great-grandmother Anna was the daughter of Archibald Gittings and Elizabeth Bosley.

Wallis’s maternal grandfather was William Latane Montague, a stockbroker (the son of Henry Brown Montague and Mary Anne Moody). William was born in Virginia. Henry was the son of John Montague and Rebecca Brown. Mary Anne was the daughter of John Moody.

Wallis’s maternal grandmother was Sallie Howard Love (the daughter of Thomas Love and Frances Imogene Presbury). Thomas was the son of Thomas Love and Martha Worthington. Frances was the daughter of George Goldsmith Presbury and Sarah Howard.

Source: Genealogy of Wallis Simpson – https://www.geni.com