Person:William Semple (21)

William Semple, Justice of the Peace, New Castle

The original commission is preserved at Harrisburg, in the Land Office, from which we have copied the following:

William Penn, Esq., proprietor and governor of Pennsylvania, New Castle, St. Jones, Whorekills, alias Deal, with their proper liberties: I do, in the king's name, hereby constitute and authorize you, John Moll, Peter Alricks, Johannes de Haes, William Simple [sic] or Sample, Arnoldus de la Grange, and John Cann, to be justices of the peace, and a court of judicature, for the town of New Castle, upon Delaware, and twelve miles north and west of the same, to the north side of Duck Creek, whereof any four of you shall make a quorum, to act in the said employment and trust, for the preservation of the peace and justice of the province, according to law, hereby willing and charging all persons within the said limits to take notice hereof, and accordingly to yield you all due and just obedience in the discharge of the said trust. And this commission to be in force for the space of one whole year, or until further ordered. Given under my hand and seal, in New Castle, this 28th day of October, 1682.

1.   Patrick Hogue (Samples). The Samples / Semples Family.
   
2. ↑ Scharf, John Thomas. History of Delaware, 1609-1888. (Tucson, Arizona: W.C. Cox Co., 1974)
   Volume 1, Chapter 9, Page(s) 81-99, 1888.

   CHAPTER 9, DELAWARE UNDER WILLIAM PENN
   
   The original commission is preserved at Harrisburg, in the Land Office, from which we have copied the following:
   "William Penn, Esq., proprietor and governor of Pennsylvania, New Castle, St. Jones, Whorekills, alias Deal, with their proper liberties: I do, in the king's name, hereby constitute and authorize you, John Moll, Peter Alricks, Johannes de Haes, William Simple, Arnoldus de la Grange, and John Cann, to be justices of the peace, and a court of judicature, for the town of New Castle, upon Delaware, and twelve miles north and west of the same, to the north side of Duck Creek, whereof any four of you shall make a quorum, to act in the said employment and trust, for the preservation of the peace and justice of the province, according to law, hereby willing and charging all persons within the said limits to take notice hereof, and accordingly to yield you all due and just obedience in the discharge of the said trust. And this commission to be in force for the space of one whole year, or until further ordered. Given under my hand and seal, in New Castle, this 28th day of October, 1682.
   
   WILLIAM PENN.
   
   "For my loving friends, John Moll, Peter Alricks, Johannes de Haes, William Simple, Arnoldus de la Grange, and John Cann, whose acceptance and obligation, signed by themselves, is also preserved as follows:
   "We, whose names are here subscribed, being by William Penn, Esq., proprietor and governor of the province of Pennsylvania and New Castle, &c., appointed justices of peace for the town of New Castle, upon Delaware, and twelve miles north and west of the same, to the north side of Duck Creek, do hereby, in the presence of God, declare and solemnly promise that we will, by the help of God be just and true, and faithfully discharge our trust, in obedience to the same commission, and act therein according to the best of our understandings. Witness our hands and seals. Given at Delaware, the 28th October, 1682." (Signed by all of them.)

3. ↑ Craig, Peter Stebbins. 1671 census of the Delaware. (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania, c1999)
   Page 41.

   The Soldiers' Tract
   West of Christina, on the north side of Christina Creek, extending westward to Anders the Finn's Creek was a tract of land patented 1 October 1669 to four English soldiers, Robert Scott, John Marshall, John Cousins and Jan Boyer. (Citing New York Patents, 3:152) By 1671 nothing had been done to develop the property. All four owners were bachelors, living at the fort in New Castle or nearby. Jan Boyer was the son of Alexander (Sander) Boyer, one of the original residents of Fort Casimir (New Castle), and his Swedish wife. (Citing Rising's Journal, 161,167.) Jan Boyer later acquired a lot on the Strand in New Castle, which was sold by his three daughters, Elizabeth, Catharina and Helena and their husbands on 20 June 1708 (Citing New Castle County Deeds, G-1:265) John Marshall soon married Jan Boyer's sister, Josyn, but had died by 1675 when Josyn, the widow of John Marshall, and the other three men sold the tract to Justa Andersson (see #83) (Citing NCR< 1:398. Josyn was later identified as Jan Boyer's sister when married to William Semple, the third of her four husbands. NCR 1:247)"

4. ↑ ^4.0 4.1 Cooper, Alexander B. Fort Casimir : the starting point in the history of New Castle, in the state of Delaware: its location and history, 1651-1671
   Vol. 5, Issue 43. Page 18, 19, 20 and map of street, 1905.

   ...On the 02 May 1682 was Granted to William Sempill the lot which was formerly granted to Hans Coderus and not yet improved...Land given to Dorcus Land.

5. ↑ ^5.0 5.1 Duke of York Record
   Page 6.

   On 30 November 1656, Peter Stuyvesant signed a grant to Alexander Boyer for about 24 morgens of land along the river north of Fort Casimir William Sempill also owned land here, "between the first and second Valley on the South End of Frans Smith's, wide along the River side from the corner of the valley to the afsd Frans Smith's ...herein measured two inlets of valleys" (etc). [Duke of York Record p. 6].

6.   Fort Casimir, in Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia.

   Fort Casimir was a Dutch Settlement

7.   Kirkhouse Semple, in Semple, William Alexander. Genealogical History of the Family Semple: From 1214 to 1888. (Hartford, Connecticut: Press of the Case, Lockwood & Brainard Co., 1888)
   Page 29 thru 38.
8. ↑ ^{8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3} List of Officers of the Colonies on the Delaware and the Province of Pennsylvania, 1614-1776., in Pennsylvania Archives, 2nd Series
   Vol. 9, Part 2, Sections 1-3.

   Justices:
   William Semple, Nov. 7, 1678
   William Semple, June 7, 1680
   William Semple, Oct. 28, 1682

9.   Bidlack, Russell E. Sparks Family Association and Quarterly, Whole No. 192, p. 5450, Dec 2000. (The Sparks Family Association published The Sparks Quarterly for fifty years, with Dr. Russell E. Bidlack as editor. Dr. Bidlack passed away in September 2003, and the last issue (volume 50, whole number 200) was published in December 2003. The Sparks Quarterly is the best family quarterly I have ever seen. It is available in many libraries.).
10. ↑ ^10.0 10.1 Cotton, Jane Baldwin; F. Edward (Frederick Edward) Wright; and Annie W. B. (Annie Walker Burns) Bell. The Maryland calendar of wills. (Baltimore [Maryland]: Genealogical Pub. Co., 1968)
    Vol. 1.

    Hix, Richard, Patuxent R., Calvert Co., 1st Apr., 1660; 8th Jan., 1660.
    
    Hix, Richard, Patuxent R., Calvert Co., 1st Apr., 1660; 8th Jan., 1660. To John Sinklear (ie. John Sinclair) and wife Jane, personalty. Dau. Mary Hix, execx. and residuary legatee. Overseers: Capt. Leonard Chamberlaine of Kent Co., and Attorney Giles Sadleir. Test: Francis Carpenter, Wm. Sampell
    
    (Sparks Family Note: One other Maryland record has been found pertaining to William Sample. On April 1, 1660, he and one Francis Carpenter witnessed the will of Richard Hix in Calvert County. Hix was identified in the will as living on "Patuxent River". Here William Sample signed his name as "Wm. Sampell." Perhaps it was from Calvert County Maryland that he went to Delaware while it was still under Dutch rule.
    Because he had had the resources to transport himself to America, William Sample must have been a young man of some means. By the time he appears in the English Delaware records, he seems to have been a man of both Financial resources and status in his community.)