Pringle, was captured in England with a packet of treasonable letters, directed by Huntly, Errol, and others to Parma and the king of Spain. Pringle confessed to Walsingham that he had been sent over from Flanders by Sempill six weeks before. The colonel's name frequently reappears in the state papers of 1593–4 in connection with the Spanish intrigues and military enterprises of that time, but he does not seem to have again visited Scotland.
In 1593 he married in Spain Doña Maria de Ledesma, widow of Don Juan Perez de Alizaga, and daughter of Don Juan de Ledesma, member of the council of India. In 1598 Robert, the fourth lord Sempill, who had been appointed Scottish ambassador at Madrid, was instructed by James to sound the intentions of Philip III with regard to the succession to the English crown. Lord Sempill in his correspondence frequently mentions the assistance he had received from ‘the crunal my cusing,’ while the colonel himself wrote to James (12 Oct. 1598) of ‘the lang intension that I haif haid to die in my cuntre in yor Maties service’ (Miscellaneous Papers, Maitland Club, p. 173). Sempill lived to a great age, occupying at the Spanish court the office of ‘gentleman of the mouth’ to the king, and busying himself with the affairs of the catholic missionaries in Scotland to whose support he liberally contributed, as is shown by the letter of Father Archangel Leslie, addressed to the colonel 20 June 1630, printed in the ‘Historical Records of the Family of Leslie’ (vol. iii. p. 421).
In 1613 Philip III had granted to Sempill the house of Jacomotrezo in Madrid as an equivalent of the sums due to him in arrears of salaries and pensions. This house he designed and endowed as a college for the education of catholic missionaries who were to be drawn from the gentry of Scotland, and by preference from members of his own family. The government of the college was to be in the hands of the Jesuit fathers. The original deed of foundation and endowment, dated 10 May 1623, was printed by the Maitland Club (Miscellaneous Papers), together with a translation of the colonel's testament, dated 20 Feb. 1633. He died in this house on 1 March 1633, at the age of eighty-seven. His wife survived him, dying on 10 Sept. 1646.
[Conæus, De duplici statu, p. 144; Gordon's Catholic Church in Scotland, p. 66; Forbes-Leith's Narratives, following an anonymous contribution to the Catholic Directory for Scotland, 1873 (but untrustworthy on Sempill's military career); for particulars of the betrayal of Liere, Bergmann's Geschiedenis der Stad Lier, pp. 265–272, based upon the rare contemporary pamphlet, Bref Discours de la trahison advenue en la ville de Liere en Braband par un capitaine escossais nommé Guillaume Semple, etc., 1582; Strada, De bello Belgico (ed. 1648), ii. 233; Meteren, Hist. des Pays-Bas, f. 217; Calderwood's Hist. iv. 680, v. 6; Reg. Privy Council, ii. 229; Pitcairn's Trials, i. 172, 332; Teulet, Papiers d'État, iii. 586, 592; Cal. State Papers, Scotland, 553, 640, 804; Border Papers, i. 310, 860, &c.]
SEMPLE. [See also Semple.]
SEMPLE, DAVID (1808–1878), antiquary, was born at Townhead, Paisley, on 21 Aug. 1808. Educated in the local grammar school and trained in a lawyer's office, he settled in business on his own account in Paisley, and was considered an able conveyancer. He was long the agent for the liberals of the burgh. He was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. He died at Paisley on 23 Dec. 1878.
Semple's works—mainly dealing with local history—are: 1. ‘Poll-tax Rolls of Renfrewshire of 1695,’ published in 1862. 2. ‘The Lairds of Glen’ and ‘History of the Cross Steeple,’ 1868. 3. ‘St. Mirin, with two supplements, a learned and patient treatise on the patron saint of Paisley, 1872. 4. ‘Barons and Barony of Renfrewshire,’ 1876. 5. ‘The Tree of Crockston,’ 1876. 6. ‘Abbey Bridge of Paisley,’ 1878. He also prepared a complete edition of Tannahill's ‘Poems,’ with a memoir and notes (Glasgow, 1870, 8vo).
[Irving's Book of Eminent Scotsmen; Brown's Paisley Poets.]
SEMPLE, GEORGE (1700?–1782?), Irish architect, son of a builder's labourer, was born in Dublin about 1700. His earliest known work is the steeple (103 feet in height) of St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, which he designed and erected in 1749. He also built St. Patrick's Hospital (1749–57), and several private mansions, including Ramsfort, co. Wexford, which was afterwards destroyed. His best known work was Essex Bridge across the Liffey. This was begun in 1752, and completed in 1754, and was considered one of the best bridges in Ireland. The government awarded him 500l. for his services. Essex Bridge was taken down in 1872, being replaced by the present Grattan Bridge, from Parliament Street to Capel Street. In 1777 Semple was living in Queen Street, Dublin, and died late in 1781 or early in 1782. His immediate descendants were also architects. He published a treatise ‘On Building in Water’ (Dublin, 1776, 4to).
