Person:James Semple (50)

During the same second half of the 18th century there was a James and Sarah Sample in Frederick County, probably the son and daughter-in-law of Samuel Sample, who first appears in the 1750's when he received a Fairfax grant of 400+ acres in Frederick Co., according to "Pioneer Families of Old Frederick Co., Va.", publ. 1995. During the above time frame Frederick and Loudoun Counties shared a common boundary, as Clark Co. had not yet been established. Some have confused James Sample of Frederick with a James Sample in Loudoun. This latter James also had a wife named Sarah, this Sarah was Catherine Thomas' daughter who is mentioned in her will . . .

Judgment against Henry McCabe to go to William Blinstone. Executors: John Brown, William Kiwan, James Semple, (sic) etc. but the proximity to Frederick County has only served to confuse the two couples.

From Catherine's will it is apparent that James Sample was then either in Loudoun Co., or at least close enough to act as an executor; and that he had at least two daughters, Susannah and Catherine, and that their mother was dead.

1758, Diana Sample, born in 1754, was bound to William Hatcher

1759, Sam Sample of Frederick Co. was listed in "Frederick Co. Rental
Rolls"

1760, Sarah Sample of Loudoun Co. married Thomas Dodd at the Fairfax
Quaker Monthly Meeting ; "Marriages of Loudoun County by Mary Alice
Wertz," page 1936.

1764, Sam Sample of Frederick Co. was listed in "Frederick Co. Rental
Rolls"

1765, John Sample of Maryland, a merchant in Leesburg, owned vast
amounts of land in Loudoun County. He shows up in several books on
early Virginia history, including "The Historian's Guide to Loudoun"
which compiled records from court order books, wills and deeds from
1757-1766 and "Landmarks of Old Prince William" which is a history of
northern Virginia. (source: Balch Library)^S5

1758 – 1769 "Tithables, Loudoun Co., Va. 1758-1769", by Sparacio does
not mention the name Sample.

1770, John Sample of Fairfax Co. listed in "Loudoun Co. Rental Rolls"

1774, John Sample of Fairfax Co. listed in "Loudoun Co. Rental Rolls"

1770/1790, the Sample name was not listed in marriage records (CD 04),
nor in "Loudoun Co. Marriages, 1757-1881"

1771 - 7 February 1771, Samuel Sample of Frederick Co. received 52
received 52 acres. on the drains of the Opeccon, adjoining the property
of Abraham Wiseman & Edward Griffith. NN Grants P., page 15

1775, A James Sample was listed in Shelbourne Parish "Index to the
Tithables of Loudoun County and Slaveholders and Slaves, 1758 – 1786",
by Ruth Sparacio

1777, James Sample listed in Shelbourne Parish (same source)

The Index to Revolutionary War Service Records lists a James Sample as
having served as a Pvt in Va Composite Battalion, composed of
companies from various regts. A Land Military Warrant, no. 1281, for
200 acres (Kentucky land) was issued to a James Sample for service in
the Virginia Continental Line, June 28, 1783

1780-1783, Loudoun County Minute Book shows a court case between
Stephens and Sample, which was abated for reason the defendant was
dead. .

1785 - 29 January, James Sample purchased a town lot in Leesburg,
Loudoun Co., Va.

1786 - January 7, 1786, James and Sarah Sample sold the property.

1787, James Sample was listed in a census for Virginia (reconstructed
from tax rolls) as having neither slaves, horses, nor cattle.

1788 and 1789 James Sample is not listed on the tax list; but a John Sample
was listed, also without taxable property. I wonder if John and James were
not the same individual.

The Index of "Revolutionary War Pension Applications in the National
Archives" lists James Sample of VA receiving a Bounty Land Warrant,
no.12569, issued 1/14/1790.
The will of John Thomas and the will of Catherine Thomas both relate to the Sarah Dorrell/Darrell who married the James Semple from Kilbarchan, Scotland and NOT the James Semple who was a soldier from Virginia.
1793, Will of John Thomas, 15 Sept. 1791 - 9 December 1993, found in
"Abstracts of Wills, Inventorie and Administration, 1757-1800" by King,
J. Estelle Stewart, 975.528, pages 42, and 44, names his wife
Catherine, and Catherine's children as Sarah Sample, Thomas Darrell,
John Darrell, and William Blinstone (called William McCabe). John
listed his own children separately, indicating he and Catherine had
previously been married, and did not have children from their mutual
marriage.

1794, At her death, Catherine Thomas left a listing of her children as:
Thomas Darrell, John Darrell, William Blinstone (called McCabe), and
Sally Sample; and granddaughters: Susannah and Catherine Sample. She
left some money and her clothes to the girls. James Sample was a
witness to the will.

Was James Sample the same individual named in Frederick County, as
probably the son of Samuel. At that time, Frederick County was
immediately adjacent to Loudoun County, making it practical for an
individual to have spent time in each, and to own property in either
county.

The following is from the DAR Patriot Index: quote

SAMPLE, James
Birth: VA 1750
Service: VA
Rank: Pvt
Death: VA 1799
Patriot Pensioned: No Widow Pensioned: No
Children Pensioned: No Heirs Pensioned: No
Spouse: Sarah Jane Unquote


1802 , a George Sample married Martha C. Pryor, according to the
"Virginia Bible".

And, in 1809 a John Sample married Lucy Smith, in Loudoun County
(source: Balch Library e-mail) Were George and John sons of James and
Sarah.

1810 Census Index re Sample famlies in Loudoun County listed James
Sample, line 543


1812, A Catherine Sample married John Doggett Brown, Loudoun County, 10
August 1812 "Marriages of Loudoun County by Mary Alice Wertz," page
1936. Information on Roots Web states Catherine had been adopted as a
child by a Quaker couple, Joshua Baker. Catherine Thomas's will had
been witnessed by a Brown. This Catherine is the daughter of the James Semple from Kilbarchan, Scotland who married Sarah Dorrell and is not related (not closely) to the James Semple (soldier) and his wife Sarah (Semple) Semple.

[Extract from Record]

Prominently sited on a hill above the scenic Goose Creek valley, the Glebe House of Shelburne Parish is a rare surviving example of a specialized type of ecclesiastical architecture. Although the house was later altered, it remains one of the few extant glebe houses for which the original specifications survive. Historically, Shelburne Glebe was the focus of a rare case of resistance to the final disestablishment of the Angelican Church in Virginia. Not until thirty-eight years after the passage of the legislative act which ordered the disposal of all glebe lands was the Shelburne glebe sold into private hands.

It has been suggested that the house was left unfinished in the American Revolution and that no interior woodwork was installed until the nineteenth century.

Shelburne Parish was set off from Cameron Parish in 1769 and named for William Fitz-Maurice, Earl of Shelburne and first Marquess of Lansdowne. In April 1771, the church wardens were directed to procure a cleric to preach once every three months at Leesburg and at the parish’s Mountain Chapel. Preference was to be given to a Rev. Mr. Scott, but in December of that year the Rev. David Griffith was elected to the position. His services came highly recommended and were eagerly sought after for their respective colonies by the colonial governors of both New York and Virginia. Griffith’s salary was adjusted to compensate for the parish’s lack of a glebe house and lands for his use. He later became a chaplain in the Continental Army, and no further notice of him appears.

In an effort to supply the lack of a glebe, the parish purchased 465 acres of land from Joseph Combs in 1773, after having hired Appolis Cooper in November, 1772, to build the house. They ordered, according to the vestry books . . .
We do not know whether the building was completed before Griffith’s departure in 1776.

Shelburne Parish resisted the 1802 legislative act ordering the sale of all glebes and the remittance of the proceeds to the county overseers of the poor. The case was finally settled in court in 1830, but it was not until 1840 that the Glebe was sold to John and Andrew Aldridge, according to the Loudoun County Deed Book. It was probably near this time that the house received its Greek Revival modernization.

In the twentieth century the property has been owned by the Gray, King, Eppes, and Cassidy familites. The Glebe was recently purchased by Mr. and Mrs. Archibald Kingsley.

1751 - Col. Francis PEYTON (Valentine-2, Henry-1) in 1751 inherited 350 A. in Loudoun County on Littler River of Goose Creek. On 6 July 1763 Francis Peyton and Frances his wife for 250 pounds sold 350 acres in Loudoun County on Little River of Goose Creek which was devised by Valentine Peyton to Francis Peyton.

1765 - August 8th, 9th, 1765 - Robert Peyton and Anne his wife sold to John Semple for 94 pounds current money of Va. all the undivided share of 230 A. which was devised by the Last Will and Testament of his father Valentine Peyton, Gent. deceased, to be equally divided between Francis Peyton, Craven Peyton, and Robert Peyton on Occoquan River in Prince William County.

1767 - May 11, 1767 - Francis Peyton and Frances his wife, Craven Peyton and Anne his wife sold John Semple 230 acres [280 acres?] at the Falls of the Occoquan devised to them and to their brother, Robert Peyton, by their father, Valentine Peyton by his last Will and Testament in writing duly proved and recorded among the Records of County Court of Prince William.