Appendix I — The Jacobite Lord Sempill
Mr. Fitzroy Bell, in a note to Murray’s Memorials (p. 42), relates that he had been unable to discover who this Jacobite Lord Sempill was. The researches of the Marquis de Ruvigny among the Stuart Papers, published in the Jacobite Peerage, make his identity quite clear. Francis Sempill was the son and heir of Robert Sempill, an officer in the French army. In 1712 this Robert Sempill received from the court of St. Germains a ‘Declaration of Noblesse,’ which stated that he ‘is grandson of the late Hugh, Lord Sempill, Peer of Scotland and sole heir-male of the property and the ancient title of the said lord, whose fourth son, Archibald, father of the said Robert, is the only one who left any living male child.’ On the 16th of July 1723 he appears as Mr. Robert Sempill, Captain of the Regiment of Dillon. He died at Paris intestate. In the documents of probate he is termed ‘Robert, Lord Sempill, alias Robert Sempill.’ On the strength of the title given to him in this reference, the Marquis de Ruvigny states that after 1723, when he was termed simply ‘Mr. Robert Sempill,’ he ‘seems after that date to have been created by James III. and VIII. a lord and peer of Parliament.’ This assumption has also been made by Mr. Fitzroy Bell, Mr. Andrew Lang, and other recent writers, but there is no evidence of any new creation, nor indeed was there any necessity for it. Robert Sempill the soldier had received in 1712 the declaration that he was entitled to the ancient title, but apparently had not used it. It seems natural to believe that his son Francis, who on the death of the father would prepare the probate papers, inserted in them the title of lord, to which the Declaration of 1712 said his father was entitled, and that on succeeding he assumed the title which his father had not used.
The following table shows the relationship of the Jacobite Lord Sempill with the nobleman who bore the same title in Scotland. He fought at Culloden and died the same year at Aberdeen (see p. 164).