Hugh Sempill, 12th Lord Sempill

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Hugh Sempill, 12th Lord Sempill (after 16 May 1688 – 25 November 1746) was a Scottish soldier.

Life[]

He was the fifth son of Francis Abercromby, Lord Glasfoord by his wife , daughter of .[1]

He went early into the Army, and was adjutant to Colonel Preston's Regiment of Foot 1 December 1708, ensign in the same regiment July 1709, and served at the Battle of Malplaquet. He was promoted captain 12 July 1712 and was placed on half-pay in 1713. In 1715 he was appointed captain in Brigadier-General Grant's Regiment, and promoted major on 5 April 1718.[2]

On 17 February 1727 Hugh Sempill succeeded his brother as Lord Sempill.[3] That year he sold the estates of and Castle Sempill, purchasing the estate of in 1741.[2]

Sempill was made lieutenant-colonel of the 19th Regiment of Foot on 12 July 1731, and succeeded the Earl of Crawford as colonel of the Black Watch on 14 January 1741. He was in command when the regiment mutinied in 1743, and followed them that year to Flanders, where they highly distinguished themselves. He received a "warrant under the sign manual of the Lords Justices, countersigned by the Treasury Lords [for £775, or £113,500 in today’s commodity value] being respective allowances to enable the officers belonging to the corps under their command to provide themselves with baggage horses upon their going to Flanders."[4] He commanded in the town of Aeth when it was besieged by the French, and that regiment made a gallant defence.[2]

Appointed colonel of the 25th Regiment of Foot on 9 April 1745, Sempill was promoted brigadier-general 9 June 1745. He was present at the Battle of Culloden on 16 April 1746, when he had command of the left wing of the royal army. In the middle of August following he arrived at Aberdeen and assumed the command of the troops stationed in that quarter, but died there on 25 November 1746. His remains were interred in the Drum Aisle in the West Church of that city on 1 December following.[2] A portrait of Hugh, 12th Lord Sempill can be seen in a new Sempill history.[5]

Family[]

Lord Sempill was married on 13 May 1718 to Sarah, daughter of Nathaniel Gaskell of Manchester. They had five sons, including , and six daughters, the eldest of whom, Sarah, married MP. Lady Sempill died on 17 April 1749.[2]

Notes[]

  1. ^ Paul, James Balfour (1904). 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. Vol. 7. Edinburgh : D. Douglas. p. 560.
  2. ^ a b c d e Paul, James Balfour (1904). 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. Vol. 7. Edinburgh : D. Douglas. pp. 562–563.
  3. ^ Paul, James Balfour (1904). 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. Vol. 7. Edinburgh : D. Douglas. p. 561.
  4. ^ Roxine A. Beaumont-Sempill (2015) The Semples, Lord Sempills of West Scotland: family and contextual history from the 11th to 19th Centuries, pg 196. Cites William A. Shaw (1903), Calendar of Treasury Books and Papers, Volume 5, 1742-1745, pp. 268-281. and uses Lawrence H. Officer and Samuel H. Williamson (2014) Five Ways to Compute the Relative Value of a UK Pound amount, 1270 to Present.
  5. ^ Roxine A. Beaumont-Sempill (2015) The Semples, Lord Sempills of West Scotland: family and contextual history from the 11th to 19th Centuries, pg 226.

Attribution Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: John MacGregor, "Sempill, Lord Sempill", in The Scots Peerage, volume VII, ed. Sir James Balfour Paul (Edinburgh, 1910) p. 557-563.

Peerage of Scotland
Preceded by
John Sempill
 Lord Sempill
1727–1746 		Succeeded by
John Sempill
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