Person:Steele Semple (1)

& Clan Sempill

Steele Semple, Lawyer

• Historical Society of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania). The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Historical Society of Pennsylvania), Vol. 13. Pages 13, 14, 15., 1889.^S7

Address to the Allegheny County Bar Association^S7

Somewhat later than John Woods came Steele Semple, an able lawyer, eloquent advocate, and finished scholar. Tradition says this much, yet his remains are so small and vauge it is impossible to describe him with fidelity. Tradition speaks of his legal attainments as immense, of his scholarship as magnificent, and of his eloquence as grand. Like Woods, with whom he was partly contemporary, his largest practice was found in land-title disputes and the trial of ejectments. His name is also frequently seen in Yeates’s Reports, ans as in attendance at the Circuit Courts of the Supreme Court in the western circuits of the State. He was, with Henry Baldwin, a witness of the cowhiding of Ephraim Pentland by Tarleton Bates, and with him signed a certificate of the facts. In this way he became partly identified with the duel which followed between Bates and Steart, in which Bates was mortally wounded and died in a few hours.^S7

Tradition represents him as of a convivial turn, often tarrying over the wine-cup late at night. It is said that on one night, after indulging in the pleasures of the glass until very late, and being too much elated to walk in the right line of sober directness, he started for home along Wood Street, and, walking with erractic steps, fell into an open cellar. There confined within the unassailable ramparts of its walls, he lay shouting aloud, and from time to time crying, “De profundis clamabo!” (nee De Profundis Clamo ad te domine. Which translates “Out of the depths I cry to you O Lord”), until a night wanderer, late as himself, passing, heard the cry, and released him from the profound depth, in which he so resolutely shouted out to catch the passing ear.^S7

He had his own experience in litigation, under the will of an uncle, carried into the Supreme Court; and his case gave rise to the rule laid down by that court, - “That words which only describe the object devised give no more than an estate for life; but words which comprehend the quantum of the estate pass the fee.” The words were, “I devise to my beloved son-in-law, Steele Semple, all my real and personal property,” 6 Binney, 97.^S7

He lived in, and probably built, the house which before the great fire of April 10, 1845, stood on Second Street, at the corner of Chancery Lane, next door to the Branch Bank of the United States, and in which my father lived many years as a tenant under James Ross, who in some way claimed the property.^S7

The following description is taken from the “History of Westmoreland County,” p. 301. What opportunities the writer – said to be George Dallas Albert – had to enable him to make the statements I know not:^S7

“The great favorite of the younger members of the bar was Steele Semple, who ought to be considered at the head of the corps of regular practitioners. In stature he was a giant of mighty bone, and possessed a mind cast in as mighty a mould. Personally he was timid and sluggish. As a speaker his diction was elegant, sparkling, and classical. His wit was genuine. He was at the same time a prodigy of memory, a gift imparted to him to supply the want of industry, although it is not every indolent man who is thus favored. Mr. Semple was conversant with all the polite and fashionable literature of the day, and was more of a modern than his distinguished competitors. It is no less strange than true that, for the first few years of his appearance at the bar, his success was very doubtful. His awkward manner, his hesitation and stammering, his indolent habits occasioned many to think that he had mistaken his vocation. Judge Brackenridge, the elder, was almost the only person who saw his future eminence. He was unfortunately carried off when he had just risen to distinction. He fell a victim to that vice which unhappily has too often overtaken the most distinguished in every profession. His fame had not travelled far from the display of his powers, which is usually the case in professions which must be seen and felt to be appreciable.”^S7

Payne v. Craft

• Frederick Watts and Henry J. Sergeant. Reports of Cases Adjudged in The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. (Philadelphia: Kay & Brother, 193 Market Street. 1854.), Vol. 43, Pages 458 to 465. Payne against Craft.^S1, ^S11

Page 458 - Joel Payne and Sarah his wife against Lewis Heidleberg and James S. Craft. This was an action of ejectment for the recovery of 160 acres of land, more or less, situated in Pitt township. Heidleberg was a tenant, and James S. Craft the landlord of the premises. The plaintiffs claimed title on two grounds:

1. Through Juliet Semple, to the whole tract; or,

2. Through Steel Semple, to an undivided moiety. Juliet Semple was an only daughter of Samuel Semple, was born in or about the year 1780 (ie. 1761), and was married to Steel Semple, June 4th 1801. They had two children, viz., Edward, born June 8th, 1802, and Sarah, the present plaintiff, born September 1st, 1805. Juliet died in 1808; Steel Semple died intestate on the 16th April 1813; Edward Semple was the sole surviving heir of Juliet Semple. Sarah was married to Joel Payne, the plaintiff, in or about the year 1832.

The plaintiffs derived their title to an undivided moiety of the land Steel Semple in the following manner, viz. Juliet Semple was the second wife of Steel Semple. By his first wife he had two children, George and Catherine. George died intestate, unmarried and without children, about 1817. Catherine married...^S1

More Transcript of Payne v. Craft^S11

Pittsburg Gazette, May 25, 1816, Real Estate of Steel Semple, Dec.

1.   Frederick Watts and Henry J. Sergeant. Reports of Cases Adjudged in The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. (Philadelphia: Kay & Brother, 193 Market Street. 1854.)
   Vol. 43, Pages 458 to 465.

   Payne against Craft

2.   Arthur, Stanley Clisby; Charles Patton Dimitry; and George Campbell de Kernion. Old Families of Louisiana. (New Orleans, Louisiana: Harmanson, 1931).

   Page 355 - Robert Semple, brother to Steele Semple -
   Page 361 - Robert Semple, a brother of Sarah Jane Semple who married Col. Thomas Butler (q. v.), was descended from the Semples of Kirkhouse, Scotland...Kirkhouse Semples'

3. ↑ ^3.0 3.1 Welchley, Mark H. Pittsburgh, Pa., gazette genealogical gleanings. (s.n.], 1983).

   Steele Semple, ESQ., attorney at law, died 16th inst. (obituary) 23 Apr 1813, 7 May 1813
   Steele Semple, Pittsburgh, deceased, estate notice. Henry Baldwin, Wm. Wilkins, Walter Forward, exrs. - appeared 6 Aug 1813.

4.   Patrick Hogue (Samples). The Samples / Semples Family.

   Patrick Lawrence Hogue/Samples and Steele Semple are 1st cousins 6 times removed. Their common ancestors are Samuel Semple, Sr., the 'Pittsburgh Lawyer' and Susannah Wilkins.
   
   This is the Semple Family from Long Dreghorn & Kirkhouse, Scotland
   
   Bagby, Alfred. King and Queen County, Virginia. (New York: Neale Pub. Co., 1908), Page 378.
   
   This from Col. Fleet of Culver: Thos. Walker, ancestor of the distinguished Dr. Thos. Walker, and Riveses of Albemarle (see Thomas Walker (explorer)), and Gov. Thos. Walker Gilmer (see Thomas Walker Gilmer), was from K. & Q." - Semple, John and James S., were sons of Rev. James Semple of England. John settled in King and Queen, marrying a Miss Walker. There son, Robert B.A. Croghan[sic] Semple[recte] married Lucy Clark, and their son, Major Croghan, then a mere youth, held the fort at Sandusky against Gen. Proctor (see Henry Procter (British Army officer)) with a large force of Indians and whites. He also distinguished himself at Tippecanoe (see Battle of Tippecanoe).
   
   Arthur, Stanley Clisby; Charles Patton Dimitry; and George Campbell de Kernion. Old Families of Louisiana. (New Orleans, Louisiana: Harmanson, 1931), Pages 355, 361, 2009.
   
   Page 355 - Robert Semple, brother to Steele Semple -
   Page 361 - Robert Semple, a brother of Sarah Jane Semple who married Col. Thomas Butler (q. v.), was descended from the Semples of Kirkhouse, Scotland.
   
   Hereditary Sempill Lords of Blackburn, Kirkhouse, and Long Dreghorn

   & Clan Sempill
   

   
5. ↑ Reid, A. B. Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine: Early Courts, Judges and Lawyers of Allegheny County. (July 1922)
   Vol. 5. No. 3. Page 193, 197, July 1922.

   Page 193 - Early Courts, Judges and Lawyers of Allegheny County - Steele Semple Graduate of Dickinson College.
   Page 197 - Steele Semple (Lawyer).

6.   The Historical Marker Database (HMdb.org).

   First Court February 6, 1804
   http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=40234

7.   The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Historical Society of Pennsylvania)
   Vol. 13. Pages 13, 14, 15., 1889.

   Address to the Allegheny County Bar Association - Steele Semple - Somewhat later than John Woods came Steele Semple, an able lawyer, eloquent advocate, and finished scholar. Tradition says this much, yet his remains are so small and vauge it is impossible to describe him with fidelity. Tradition speaks of his legal attainments as immense, of his scholarship as magnificent, and of his eloquence as grand. Like Woods, with whom he was partly contemporary, his largest practice was found in land-title disputes and the trial of ejectments. His name is also frequently seen in Yeates’s Reports, ans as in attendance at the Circuit Courts of the Supreme Court in the western circuits of the State. He was, with Henry Baldwin, a witness of the cowhiding of Ephraim Pentland by Tarleton Bates, and with him signed a certificate of the facts. In this way he became partly identified with the duel which followed between Bates and Steart, in which Bates was mortally wounded and died in a few hours.
   Tradition represents him as of a convivial turn, often tarrying over the wine-cup late at night. It is said that on one night, after indulging in the pleasures of the glass until very late, and being too much elated to walk in the right line of sober directness, he started for home along Wood Street, and, walking with erractic steps, fell into an open cellar. There confined within the unassailable ramparts of its walls, he lay shouting aloud, and from time to time crying, “De profundis clamabo!” (nee De Profundis Clamo ad te domine. Which translates “Out of the depths I cry to you O Lord”), until a night wanderer, late as himself, passing, heard the cry, and released him from the profound depth, in which he so resolutely shouted out to catch the passing ear.
   He had his own experience in litigation, under the will of an uncle, carried into the Supreme Court; and his case gave rise to the rule laid down by that court, - “That words which only describe the object devised give no more than an estate for life; but words which comprehend the quantum of the estate pass the fee.” The words were, “I devise to my beloved son-in-law, Steele Semple, all my real and personal property,” 6 Binney, 97.
   He lived in, and probably built, the house which before the great fire of April 10, 1845, stood on Second Street, at the corner of Chancery Lane, next door to the Branch Bank of the United States, and in which my father lived many years as a tenant under James Ross, who in some way claimed the property.
   The following description is taken from the “History of Westmoreland County,” p. 301. What opportunities the writer – said to be George Dallas Albert – had to enable him to make the statements I know not:
   “The great favorite of the younger members of the bar was Steele Semple, who ought to be considered at the head of the corps of regular practitioners. In stature he was a giant of mighty bone, and possessed a mind cast in as mighty a mould. Personally he was timid and sluggish. As a speaker his diction was elegant, sparkling, and classical. His wit was genuine. He was at the same time a prodigy of memory, a gift imparted to him to supply the want of industry, although it is not every indolent man who is thus favored. Mr. Semple was conversant with all the polite and fashionable literature of the day, and was more of a modern than his distinguished competitors. It is no less strange than true that, for the first few years of his appearance at the bar, his success was very doubtful. His awkward manner, his hesitation and stammering, his indolent habits occasioned many to think that he had mistaken his vocation. Judge Brackenridge, the elder, was almost the only person who saw his future eminence. He was unfortunately carried off when he had just risen to distinction. He fell a victim to that vice which unhappily has too often overtaken the most distinguished in every profession. His fame had not travelled far from the display of his powers, which is usually the case in professions which must be seen and felt to be appreciable.”

8.   Hogue, Patrick compiler. Virginia, United States. Chancery Records Index. (Virginia, United States: Library of Virginia), Pages 38, 39, 1802-1803.
   Pages 1 - 41.
9. ↑ The Bench and Bar, Chapter 10 (Transcribed by Pat Collins), in History of Butler County Pennsylvania, 1895.

   The early attorneys who came here from Pittsburg to attend upon the sessions of the court were much given to telling stories about Butler county and her people, calculated to amuse Pittsburg auditors, but to have the opposite effect upon residents of Butler. The SEMPLEs took delight in asserting that a whippoorwill, before leaving Allegheny county to fly across Butler county, would provide rations for the trip, and that, owing to the extreme shortness of the clover, bees were compelled to get down upon their knees in order to gather even a scant supply of honey. The poverty of the hog was also dilated upon, and much fun made of its alleged leanness. Later on, when Butler hotel tables added to their bills of fare the toothsome buckwheat cake, these same merrymaking lawyers conferred upon Butler the title of "The Buckwheat County," a name continued to the present time.
   
   The first record of the court of quarter sessions is dated February 13, 1804. On that day the commission of Hon. Jesse MOORE, as president of the court of common pleas, of the counties of Butler, Beaver, Mercer, Crawford and Erie, was read, as well as those issued to Samuel FINDLEY and John PARKER, as associate judges of Butler county. The following attorneys were then admitted to practice before the court, on motion of Steel SEMPLE: William N. IRWIN, Alexander W. FOSTER, William WILKINS, Isaac MASON, Henry HASLETT, Thomas COLLINS, Henry BALDWIN, Cunningham S. SEMPLE, John GILMORE and James MOUNTAIN. Steel SEMPLE was then admitted on motion of Thomas COLLINS. On February 14, Joseph SHANNON was enrolled as a member of this bar, and William NELLIS and William McDONALD were appointed constables.

10. ↑ Campbell, T. C. The Twentieth Century Bench and Bar of Pennsylvania. (Chicago, Illinois: H. C. Cooper, Jr., Bro. & Co., 1903).

    Page 20
    
    Then there was Steele Semple, admitted on motion of James Hamilton, January, 1791, who was graduated in the first class of Dickinson College, went to Pittsburgh and died in April, 1813.
    
    Butler County by T. C. Campbell
    
    Page 461
    
    Upon the same day the bar of the county was organized. William N. Irwin, Alexander W. Foster, William Wilkins, Isaac Meason, Henry Haslet, Thomas Collins, Henry Baldwin, Cunningham S. Semple, John Gilmore, and James Mountain being admitted upon mostion of Steel Semple, and then Steel Semple being admitted upon mostion of Thomas Collins.
    
    Of the attorneys present, Steel Semple and A. W. Foster were noted lawyers of the Pittsburgh bar who were to practice…
    
    Page 462
    
    …extensively in the Butler bar and be actively engaged in its trials. Semple practiced in Butler county until about 1810, and Foster until about 1824, during which time the later appeared in almost all of the Butler cases removed to the Supreme Court.

11.   Payne v. Craft.
12. ↑ Chapter 10 - Steel Semple, in Morgan, James Henry. Dickinson College : the history of one hundred and fifty years, 1783-1933. (Carlisle, Pa.: Dickinson College, 1933).

    Kline's Carlisle Weekly Gazette in its issue of October 3 following this first commencement gives a full account of it, and while there were some curious features possibly, there is no hint that anything in bad taste had been spoken by Nisbet in his address to the class. One may wonder whether Rush's correspondent did not write Rush what the latter would probably like to hear, or at least magnify what Nisbet said. The Gazette said:
    On Wednesday, the 26th ultimo was held the first Commencement for degrees in Dickinson College.
    
    The Trustees, having obtained leave to use the Presbyterian Church on this occasion, the exercises with which a crowded assembly of ladies and gentlemen were very agreeably entertained, were exhibited in that large and elegant building.
    At 10 o'clock in the morning, the Trustees, Professors & the several classes of students in College, proceeded in order from the College to the Church. When all had taken the places assigned them, the Principal introduced the business of the day by prayer. The following orations were then announced.
    
    A salutatory oration, in Latin, on the advantages of learning, particularly of a public education, by Mr. John Bryson.
    An oration on the excellency of moral science by Mr. John Boyse.
    An oration on the importance and advantages of concord especially at the present crisis of the United States of America, by Mr. David M'Keehan.
    An oration on taste, by Mr. Isaiah Blair.
    An oration on the advantages of an accurate acquaintance with Latin and Greek classics, by Mr. Jonathan Walker.
    
    After an intermission of two hours, the following exercises took place in the afternoon.
    
    An oration on the pleasure and advantages of the study of history, by Mr. David Watts.
    An oration on the nature of civil liberty, and evils of slavery and despotic power, by Mr. Steel Semple.
    An oration on the various and wonderful powers and faculties of the human mind, by Mr. James Gettings.
    
    The degree of Batchelor of Arts was then conferred by the Principal on the following young Gentlemen, viz: John Boyse, John Bryson, Robert Duncan, Isaiah Blair, Jonathan Walker, David Watts, David, M'Keehan, James Gettings and Steel Semple.
    
    This was immediately followed by an address of the Principal to the graduates in which they were affectionately exhorted to prosecute their studies with zeal and diligence ... and to conduct themselves in future life in such a manner as might render them useful citizens, blessings of their country, and an honour to the College in which they were educated.
    
    A valedictory oration in praise of science, and of the worthy patrons of literature, concluded with suitable addresses to the Trustees, Professors and Graduates, was pronounced by Mr. Robert Duncan.
    
    The business of the day was concluded with prayer by the Principal.
    
    The young gentlemen performed all these exercises with a propriety and spirit which did them great honour, reflected much credit on their teachers, and gave ground to hope that the sons of Dickinson College will at least equal in useful learning and talents, those of any other seminary.