General Notes

[janet skelton.FTW]

The first records of the familly Sempill/Semple were from the county ofRenfrewshire in the 1200s. The county is located in the west of Scotland,just east of the city of Glasgow on the River Clyde. Robert de Sempillwitnessed a charter of Malcolm, Earl of Lennox circa 1280. The Sempleshad great possessions of land and held the office of steward of theBarony of Renfrew. This barony or lords has been carried down to thepresent day. They also held the office of sheriff and occupied seats inParliament. They also owned land in the counties of Ayr and Lanark andwere remote barons in the Elliestoun area. Branches of the Semple familycome from Fulwood, Elliestoun, Cathcart, Blackburn, Closs, Balgoun,Kirkhouse, Beltrees, Millbank and Bruntschells.
The surname "Semple" appears localized in origin. It is believed to havecome from the Strathclyde Britons, an ancient founding race ofGaelic-Celts in the north who lived in the Lancashire to River Clydearea. The name could possibly have arisen from the words "St. Paul" as inone who came from or lived near that place, or "small," describingperhaps stature or a humble character.
Of interesting note is that the Semples have a Coat of Arms which extendsback to the Renfrew Barony in the 1200s and a motto, "Keep Tryst". TheSemples have no tartan to represent the clan. Research shows that thefamily was too stubborn to register one. This trait, stubbornness or morepositively, steadfastness, has been a family trait to the present day!
There are several spellings of the name: Semple, Simple, Sample, Sempill,Sempell, Symple and Semphill. These variants often occurred, even betweenfather and son. Sometimes the person could not write his or her own nameso the officials and clergy often wrote it as it sounded. Even withindocuments, the name was spelled one way and signed another.
The Semples began to emigrate to North America in the mid -1700s. Theysettled in the colonies of Virginia, North and South Carolina,Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. The first Semples to eastern Canada cameto Nova Scotia in the 1780s. Robert Semple (1761 -1832) settled in UpperStewiacke and Thomas Semple, a loyalist who settled in Shelburne in 1783,returned to Massachusetts with his family not long afterwards.
Thomas Douglas Selkirk (1771 - 1820), the 5th Earl of Lord Doer andShortcleuch, had a great influence on the immigration of the Semplefamily. In 1812 he founded the Red River Settlement (Assiniboa) in Canadawhich is now the city of Winnipeg. In April 12, 1815, through theinfluence of Lord Selkirk, Robert Semple (1777 - 1816) obtained acommission as Governor or chief agent of the Hudson Bay Company in NorthAmerica. He was the son of Robert Semple, an American loyalist, workingas a merchant in London. One June 19, 1816, Robert was murdered with 19of his men in a clash with the Nor'Westers at the Seven Oaks Massacre.
Lord Selkirk went to Canada in 1803 and established a large settlement onPrince Edward Island. He believed that the hardships of the ScottishHighlanders could be helped by immigration. The Semple family, Robert andJames, first settled on Prince Edward Island in the early 1800s. Atpresent I have no direct evidence that they were closely related but the5 - year difference in age could indicate that they were brothers orcousins. Robert Semple (1781 - 1854) came from Scotland, via Belfast,Ireland and settled at Grandview, Lot 57 near Belfast, P.E.I. His family,which became a mixture of Semples and Samples, still live in the Montaguearea and in the Stellarton-Westville, N.S. area. My family line, JamesSemple (1786 - 1853) with his wife, Mary and two children, came fromKilmalcolm, Scotland and moved to New Glasgow, Lot 23, P.E.I. The familylater settled in the town of Kensington in Lot 19.
My research not only includes my family line, James Semple (New Glasgow,P.E.I) but other lines as well: Robert (Grandview, P.E.I), John & RobertSample-Semple (Upper Stewiacke, N.S.), William (Musquodoboit - M