Person:William Semple (26)

     
Col. William Semple, of Spain
d.1 Mar 1633 Madrid, Spain
m. 24 Aug 1546
  1. John Semple, 1st Lord Sempill 'of Beltrees'Abt 1540 - 1579
  2. Countess Jean Semple, of Ross - 1592/93
  3. Dorothea SempleAbt 1543 - 1600
  4. Grissel Semple - 1609
  5. Marian Semple - 1591/92
  6. Isobel Semple
  7. Elizabeth Semple
  8. Col. William Semple, of SpainAbt 1546 - 1633
  9. Lt. Gilbert Semple - Aft 1594
m. 1593
  1. Francis Semple - 1670
  2. Andrew Semple - 1653
Facts and Events
Name Col. William Semple, of Spain
Gender Male
Birth[7] Abt 1546 Lochwinnoch, Renfrewshire, Scotland
Military[15] 13 May 1568 Langside, Glasgow, ScotlandBattle of Langside
Military[15] 2 Aug 1582 Lier, Antwerpen, BelgiumSurrendered the town
Marriage 1593 to Doña María de Ledesma
Marriage to Michela Fernandez
Will[10] 4 Jan 1632 Madrid, SpainA Copy of the Testament of Col. William Semple (Translated by Bishop Kyle who possesses both Spanish & Italian versions of the will)
Will[10] 10 Feb 1633 Madrid, SpainA Copy of the Testament of Col. William Semple (Translated by Bishop Kyle who possesses both Spanish & Italian versions of the will)
Death? 1 Mar 1633 Madrid, Spain

Colonel William Semple of Spain

  • The Scots Peerage by Paul, James
Page 551 – Colonel William Sempill, born in 1546, who, on 2 August 1582, betrayed Lier, Belgium to the Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma, and was afterwards the founder of the Royal Scots College at Madrid, Spain, and whose nephew Hugh, styled himself ‘Craigbaitaeus,’ is stated to have been an illegitimate son of Robert Semple, 3rd Lord Sempill. The evidence is extremely conflicting, but the balance of testimony is in favour of this view. He had also a brother, Gilbert, who was killed in Flanders. Colonel Sempill married, in 1593, Donna Maria de Ledesma, daughter of Don Juan de Ledesma.
  • Founder of the Royal Scots College in Madrid.S5
Col. William Semple of Lochwinnoch, after a life spent in the military and diplomatic service of the Spanish crown, founded (with his wife, Doña María de Ledesma) a college in Madrid, Spain in 1627, entrusting its running to the Jesuits. Their deed of foundation stipulated that the college was for students "Scottish by birth, preferably those of superior character and virtue and those who promise more fruit in the welfare of souls, and they have to spend whatever time may be necessary in studying Grammar and Philosophy, Theology, Controversies and Sacred Scripture, so that when they are well versed in all of these, they may proceed to the said Kingdom of Scotland to preach the Gospel and convert heretics... when they leave the said seminary for this purpose, others are to be received in their place having the same end, and thus the matter will continue for as long as the aforesaid conversion may require".

Colonel William Semple of Spain, Timeline

1543 - Illegitimate Son, of Robert Semple, 3rd Lord Sempill and Elizabeth Carlyle, of Torthorwald. During his adolescence, he belonged to the household of Mary, Queen of Scots.
13 May 1568 - Was present with Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotts, at the Battle of Langside. Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotts, displayed before her the Sempill Sword at the battle.S6
20 June 1573 - Colonel William Semple, along with his brother-in-law James Ross, 4th Lord Ross are excommunicated for being Roman Catholic.
1573 - Mary Stuart Queen of Scotts From her prison in England, was enabled, through the agency of John Seaton, son of the Earl of Winton, to undeceive him, and to notify her pleasure that he Col. William Semple should pass to the service of the King of Spain. He immediately obeyed the command of his Sovereign.
1580 - Col. William Semple fights for Spain - Through his influence three regiments of Scottish infantry and three companies of cavalry, together with the fortresses of Guelders, Bruges, and Lierre, embraced the Spanish cause.
1582 - King Philip II, of Spain Gives William Sempill A Mission - In 1582 Col. William Semple passed into Spain. King Philip II, of Spain availed himself of him, to send to Scotland the succours of money which he gave to the Catholic missionaries in that kingdom ; he also employed him in several confidential missions.
08 Aug 1588 - Col. William Semple, Spy envoy between Prince Parma of Spain and Huntley - Day on which the Great Armada was being driven in disastrous rout before the English "sea-dogs," a Spanish warship with some two hundred men aboard anchored off the Port and sent a boat ashore with sixteen men, bearing dispatches from Parma to Col. William Semple.
09 Aug 1588 - Col. William Semple Captured and Imprisoned - But Sir John Carmichael, the Captain of the King’s Guard, was too clever for them. He not only arrested the crew of the Spanish boat, but at the same time captured Semple and all Parma’s dispatches.
24 Sep 1588 - Col. William Semple Escapes from Prison - Col. William Semple had again been put in prison, in the house of a burgess of Edinburgh, but had escaped with the help of his sister the Countess of Ross, and his brother-in-law James Ross, 4th Lord Ross, and retired with his friends; the earl of Huntly having been the cause of his having been set at liberty before.
1589 - Col. William Semple's Citation for Service to the King of Spain - Duke of Parma gave him a letter of recommendation to the King of Spain, setting forth his great services, and praying his Catholic Majesty to reward him as he deserved. He was consulted on several occasions by the King regarding Spain's strategy toward the UK.
November 1593 - Spanish blanks plot Aftermath - An official account of the plot appeared in February 1593; it is assumed it was edited by John Davidson (minister). It by no means included all the intercepted letters; but it printed a number concerned with William Sempill in 1589; the connection was that when Sempill's servant Pringle was found in England carrying letters to Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma, they had included some from Huntly and Erroll.
Perceptions of James VI shifted after the discoveries: some assumed the affair showed the king had at least tacitly approved dealings with Spain, and many more put it down to slackness in anti-Catholic measures.
13 Sep 1598 - (kinsman) Robert, 4th Lord Semple, was nominated Scottish ambassador in Madrid, Spain.
1613 - Col. William Semple Given a Home in Madrid, Spain - In 1613 Philip III of Spain had granted to Sempill the house of Jacomotrezo in Madrid, Spain as an equivalent of the sums due to him in arrears of salaries and pensions.
10 May 1627 - Col. William Semple Began the Royal Scots College, Madrid, Spain - executed the deed of foundation.
17 Jun 1627 - Vatican City - Letter to Col. William Semple from Pope Urban VIII - The Pope addressed a brief to the Colonel, in which he gave him his apostolic benediction, congratulated him on the foundation of the Royal Scots College, and on the good fortune which he had had, of being brought up in the Court of Mary Stuart;...
1633
References
  1.   Patrick Hogue (Samples). The Samples / Semples Family.
  2.   Thomas Graves Law, LL.D., and LL.D. P. Hume Brown. Collected essays and reviews of Thomas Graves Law, LL.D. (Edinburgh: T. and A. Constable, At the University Press, 1904)
    Pages 320 - 326, 1904.

    Colonel William Sempill - The Hero of Lierre

  3.   Sempill, William (DNB00), in Wikisource.

    Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 51. Sempill, William
    by Thomas Graves Law

  4.   National Museums Scotland - Location of Sempill Sword .
  5.   Royal Scots College, in Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia.

    Founded by Colonel William Semple and his wife Doña María de Ledesma.

  6.   Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Volume 18. (Edinburgh: Printed For The Society By Neill and Company, 1883-1884)
    Volume 18, Pages 226-228, 1884.

    MARY QUEEN of SCOTTS - Is alleged to have displayed the SEMPILL's SWORD before her at the Battle of Langside.

    NOTICE OF THE SEMPILL SWORD, NOW PRESENTED TO THE MUSEUM BY THE BARONESS SEMPILL. By Sm HENRY DRYDEN, Bart., Hon. Mem. S.A. Scot.
    This sword, now presented to the Museum by the Baroness Sempill of the Manor House, Moreton Pinkney, Northamptonshire, is said to have belonged to the Sempill family, as hereditary sheriff's of Renfrew, and is said to have been carried before Queen Mary at the battle of Langside in 1568, when the forces of the queen were defeated by those under the Earl of Murray, Regent of Scotland.

    The blade is 5 feet 9 and 3/8's inches long, and 3 and 3/16th inches wide at the hilt; the guard and hilt together are 2 feet 7 and 3/4 inches long; total 8 feet 5 and 1/8th inches. The pommel is of brass, somewhat triangular in form, 4 and 3/4 inches wide, 5 and 3/8 inches long, and 1 and 3/4 inches thick in the middle. From the wide end projects a sort of tenon, rectangular in section, 2 and 1/8 inches long and 1 116 by 3/4 inches wide. This apparently fitted into a socket, perhaps a fixed socket when not in use, and into a socket attached to a belt hanging from a man's neck when carried. The hilt is oval in section, bulging in the centre of tho length, and there 3 by 2 and 3/16th inches. It is covered with shark's skin twisted diagonally round it, and confined by a brass wire also placed diagonally. At each end is a brass ferule. The guard is flat and curved, 1 foot 5 and 1/8th inches between its extremities, notched at each end, of brass and lacquered or gilt. The blade has three sections. The tang runs through (he hilt to the end of the tenon. On each side is engraving, formed by two chisel-like punches about 3/16th inches long" and 1/8th inches long, and thin; so that the curves are a series of short straight strokes. The ornament on one side is a conjunction of five pinnacles, three of which are surrounded by crosses, below which (nearer the hilt) is a scries of lozenges; farther on, a lion, very rudely cut, and farther still, a letter y reversed. The other side has a conjunction of four pinnacles, two of which are surmounted by crosses, below which are two ovals interlaced; farther on a lion, smaller than the last; and farther still, a y reversed, also smaller than the last. The engraving is obliterated in some parts, and it is probable that at some time the sword has been allowed to be rusty, and has since been cleaned and polished, and reduced in the process. The sword weighs 24J lbs. The scabbard is of black leather, ornamented with bands of five, six, or seven small rolls at intervals, between each pair of which bands are four foliage ornaments, of which there are two varieties. The chape and the two lockets are of brass, lacquered, or gilt, scolloped at the edges. The lockets have no rings, which fact, with the tenon on the hilt, shows that the sword was carried point upwards. The scabbard has been patched in two or three places. It weighs 3 lbs. The date of this sword must be arrived at by comparison with others. It is not certain that the scabbard is contemporary with the sword.

    Ceremonial Sword and Scabbard Owned by the Sempills of Elliestoun

  7. 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 551 – Colonel William Sempill, born in 1546, who, on 2 August 1582, betrayed Lierre to the Duke of Parma, and was afterwards the founder of the Scots College at Madrid, and whose ‘nepos,’ Hugh, styled himself ‘Craigbaitaeus,’ is stated to have been an illegitimate son of Lord Sempill. The evidence is extremely conflicting, but the balance of testimony is in favour of this view. He had also a brother, Gilbert, who was killed in Flanders. Colonel Sempill married, in 1593, Donna Maria de Ledesma, daughter of Don Juan de Ledesma.

  8.   Worthington, D. C. Scots in Habsburg Service: 1618 - 1648. (Netherlands: BRILL, 2004).
  9.   Taylor, Maurice. The Scots College In Spain. (Valladolid, 1971)
    Pages 17 to 45.

    I William Semple and the Foundation of the College I. (Pages 17-26) .pdf file
    II. The Years in Madrid - Electric Scotland. II. (Pages 27-45) .pdf file

  10. 10.0 10.1 The Maitland Club. Miscellaneous Papers, Principally Illustrative of Events In The Reigns of: Queen Mary and King James VI. (Glasgow, Scotland: Khull, Edward (Printer to the University), July 1834).
  11.   Sempill, William, in Stephen, Leslie, ed, and Sidney, ed Lee. Dictionary of National Biography. (London: Smith, Elder, 1885-1900).
  12.   The Tablet The International Catholic News Weekly Page 37, August 1896.
  13.   APPENDIX III, REGISTER OF THE SCOTS COLLEGE IN SPAIN, MADRID PERIOD 1627-1767, ADMINISTRATORS/RECORS.

    1. HUGH SEMPLE, (or HUGO SEMPILIO) (1627):1633 to 13th September 1654. Born 1589, the son of Robert Semple of Craigbait, Renfrewshire, and Grizel Montgomery, or Cunningham; nephew of Colonel William Semple; joined Society of Jesus, Province of Toledo, 1615; died in Colegio Imperial, Madrid, 13th September 1654.
    http://www.electricscotland.com/history/spain/collegeappndx3a.pdf

  14.   Concepción SAENZ-CAMBRA: Colonel William Sempill of Lochwinnoch (1546-1630): A Strategist For Sapin , in Modern Times : Electronic Journal of Modern History ISSN : 1699-7778
    Vol 5, No 13, 2006.
  15. 15.0 15.1 McInally, Thomas. The Sixth Scottish University: The Scots Colleges Abroad: 1575 to 1799
    Pages 26-31.