Semple was born at Townhead, Paisley, on 21 August 1808. Educated at Paisley Grammar School and trained in a lawyer's office, he went into business on his own account in Paisley, and made a reputation as a conveyancer. ^[1]

Semple for long acted as the agent for the liberals of the burgh. In 1873^[2] he was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. He died at Paisley on 23 Dec. 1878.^[1]

He is buried in Woodside Cemetery, Paisley, towards the west end of the main east-west path at the crest of the hill.

Semple's works mainly dealt with local history. They were:^[1]

• Poll-tax Rolls of Renfrewshire of 1695, published in 1862.
• The Lairds of Glen and History of the Cross Steeple, 1868.
• Saint Mirin, with two supplements, a treatise on the patron saint of Paisley, 1872.
• Barons and Barony of Renfrewshire, 1876.
• The Tree of Crockston, 1876.
• Abbey Bridge of Paisley, 1878.

He also prepared a complete edition of Robert Tannahill's Poems, with a memoir and notes (Glasgow, 1870).^[1]

Attribution

  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1897). "Semple, David". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 51. London: Smith, Elder & Co.