Person:Grizel Semple (1)

Grizzel Semple

• The Scots Peerage by Paul, James

Page 545 – Grisel, the eldest daughter. In October 1532 William Wallace of Craigie, was requisitioned to marry her. She was married, before 10 March 1539-40, as his second wife, to James Hamilton, eldest son of James Hamilton of Raplock, who had acquired the estate of Stonehouse or Stanehouse by his first wife Margaret Mowat. He was appointed Director of Chancery on 3 October 1544. In the year 1548, when he was Provost of Edinburgh and Captain of the Castle, he was slain, along with his eldest son James, his deputy, in attempting to quell a riot between the citizens of Edinburgh and the French auxiliaries. She was divorced sometime before 21 February 1545-46, as prior to this she became the mistress of John Hamilton, the natural son of James, first Earl of Arran, Abbot of Paisley, and afterwards Archbishop of St. Andrews. She was apparently then known as ‘Lady Gilton.’ But for her interest with the Archbishop, who influenced his brother the Regent, her father would have been executed in 1550 for the slaughter of William, Lord Crichton of Sanquhar. While still the mistress of the Archbishop of St. Andrews, on 16 February 1550-51 she entered into a contract to marry Patrick Learmonth of Dairsie, Provost of St. Andrews, so soon as decree of divorce whould be obtained between him and Isobel Balfour, then his spouse. She acknowledged the redemption from her and her natural son John of the lands of Pettincraig, etc., in the sheriffdom of Edinburgh, on 10 February 1551-52. In 1552 she and her natural sons William and John, who had be legitimated in 1551, entered into a contract with Henry Wardlaw, fiar of Torry, whereby the latter undertook to infeft her in liferent and her said natural sons, whom failing, James Hamilton of Stanehouse alias Keynneill, in fee in the lands and barony of Torry under reversion. The Provost and other members of the Town Council of Edinburgh, on 26 November 1561, ordained her to remove from the town. As the Archbishop of St. Andrews had a residence in Edinburgh, it was no doubt her living openly with him that occasioned this peremptory enactment. When the Archbishop was committed to Edinburgh Castle, in 1563, for attempting to restore popery, her uncle, William Sempill of Thirdpart, was one of his sureties. After the death of Archbishop, on 7 April 1571, Grisel Sempill was put to the horn for non-payment of the rents of Middle and Craig Fuddis, and the house of Blair, which she had vacted in consequence of a charge from the Earl of Lennox, the Regent, was on 30 January 1572-73 ordered to be delivered to her. She had several children; William Hamilton of Drumry, John Hamilton of Blair, and Margaret Hamilton, who was married to Robert Bruce of Blairhall, were the offspring who came to maturity of her connection with the Archbishop. These two sons were legitimated on 9 October 1551. George Martine says he has seen copies of charters granted by the Archbishop to William, and John, and James, another son of his by Grisel Sempill. James Hamilton, her husband, by his first wife, had five sons, James, John, Robert, Archibald, and Thomas. By her husband, the said James Hamiltoun, Grisel Sempill had two sons, Robert and John. Robert is mentioned as dead on 29 May 1565, leaving a daughter. She had certainly two daughter by her husband, Elizabeth and Grisel. The latter had a charter, 26 March 1556, from David Cunyngham of Robertland, of certain lands in Ayr and Renfrew. Her daughter Elizabeth became the wife of Roger Kirkpatrick, and was divorced by him for adultery, and was her mother’s executrix. Grisel Sempill died in October 1575, and in the confirmation of her testament-dative she is styled ‘ane honourable Lady, Gryssell Sympill, Lady Stanehous.’

• Naismith, Robert J. Stonehouse : historical and traditional. (Glasgow [Scotland]: R. Forrester, 1885), Pages 47 to 54.

LADY STONEHOUSE.

Lady Stonehouse (Grizzel Semple), widow of James Hamilton of Stonehouse, was married to, or at any rate was the mistress of, John Hamilton, abbot of Paisley, and founder of the Blair family. He was a natural son of Thomas, the first earl of Arran, and was made abbot of Paisley in 1525, bishop of Dunkeld in 1546, and archbishop of St. Andrews in 1549. He obtained a legitimation under the Great Seal, 20th June, 1545; was keeper of the Privy Seal from January, 1542, till August, 1546; and treasurer of Scotland from 1543 till 1544, when his brother resigned the regency. He was taken prisoner at the surprise of Dumbarton Castle in 1571, and executed by the Regent Lennox at Stirling thereafter.

He is said to have been the first bishop in Scotland who died by the hands of the executioner. The high offices he enjoyed both in church and state ought to have exempted him from a punishment inflicted on the lowest criminals; but his zeal for the queen, his abilities and his profession rendered him odious and formidable to the king's adherents. Lennox hated him as the person by whose counsels the reputation and power of the house of Hamilton were supported. Party rage and personal enmity dictated the sentence, and it was said that his execution was hastened lest Queen Elizabeth should interfere in his behalf. His death was the signal for the loyalists to fly to arms. The indignation of his kinsmen, the Hamiltons, was unbounded, and hostilities were renewed with a fierceness and animosity which had hardly a precedent. From this event a two years' war began, and the country was desolated with all the miseries of civil strife. "King's men" and "Queen's men," the names by which the two factions were distinguished, started up in almost every quarter; the inhabitants of the same town or village—the most intimate friends, nay, members of the same family—were frequently opposed in this unnatural warfare.

Lady Stonehouse had several children to the archbishop. Two of her sons, John and William, obtained legitimation under the Great Seal, 9th October, 1551. In Pitcairn's "Criminal Trials" she is styled, in addition to her usual designation, Lady Gilton, which was probably given her on account of some property she may have acquired of that name. A most remarkable notice of this lady occurs in the records of the town council of Edinburgh, 26th November, 1551. Which day the provost and members of council ordained "Actis to be sit furth charging Grizzell Sempill, Lady Stanehouse, adulterar, to remuif herself furth of the town betwix and Munanday next under the pains containit in the proclamation set furth again adulteraris." She appears to have acquired the lands of Blair, near Culross, and she is sometimes called "Lady Blair." She died in 1575, and in the confirmation of her testament-dative she is styled "ane honourabill Lady Grizzell Sempill, Lady Stanehouse." She was succeeded in the lordship of Blair by her son William, and the family ended in his grandson, Peter Hamilton, first minister of Cramond, afterwards at Leith, and sub-dean of the Chapel Royal. He was promoted by Charles II. to the episcopal see of Dunkeld, and died after the revolution without issue.

1.   Patrick Hogue (Samples). The Samples / Semples Family.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4} Naismith, Robert J. Stonehouse : historical and traditional. (Glasgow [Scotland]: R. Forrester, 1885)
   Pages 47 to 54.

   James Hamilton of Stonehouse and Grizzel Semple had issue --
   
   1. James, his heir apparent captain of Edinburgh Castle, deputy under his father, and a director of chancery. He had a charter under the Great Seal, to James Hamilton and Elizabeth Tours his spouse, of the lands of Kittymuir, dated 21st February, 1546. As mentioned, he was slain at Edinburgh in 1548, along with his father and others, leaving a daughter and heiress named Barbara.
   2. John, who succeeded to the estate.
   3. Robert, who was denounced, along with his brother-in-law Patrick Hamilton, at the instance of George Hamilton of Preston, for the capture and detention of Thomas Inglis of Murdistoun, and his eschait given to John Hamilton of Airdrie in 1595. He appears to have been a churchman, for he had a grant of the abbacy of Failfurde, in the diocese of Glasgow, dated 1543, having previously been vicar of Kilmarnock.
   4. Archibald.
   5. Alexander.
   6. Thomas.
   7. Grizzel, who had a charter of her life-rent of the lands of Cassiltown and Castlewallis, in the county of Ayr, dated 1st March, 1556.
   8. Janet.
   9. Daughter
   10. Daughter
   11. Daughter
   
   These FIVE Daughter’s married respectively to:
   
   1. Kilpatrick of Closeburn
   2. Lockhart of Cleghorn
   3. Cunningham of Robertland
   4. Crawford of Ferne, and
   5. Hamilton of Silvertonhill

3.   Knox, John; Laing, David. The Works of John Knox;: Collected and Edited by David Laing. (Edinburgh: The Wodrow Society, 1846)
   Vol. 1, Page 124, 280.
4. ↑ Grizel Sempill, in Lundy, Darryl. The Peerage: A genealogical survey of the peerage of Britain as well as the royal families of Europe.

   Disambiguous. Her 1/2 sister, also named Grissel Semple married John Blair, of that Ilk.

5. ↑ ^5.0 5.1 Paul, James Balfour. The Scots peerage: founded on Wood's edition of Sir Robert Douglas's ‘Peerage of Scotland’ containing an historical and genealogical account of the nobility of that kingdom, with armorial illustrations. (Edinburgh: D. Douglas, 1904-1914)
   Vol. 7. Page 545.
6.   INTERACTIVE family history guide to past proprietors of Stonehouse.
   http://www.stonehousebooks.co.uk/downloads/pastproprietorsguide.pdf