James George Semple Lisle (1759–1815) was a Scottish adventurer and Swindler. He used numerous aliases, taking Lisle as a surname additional to his original name, and published in 1799 ''The Life of Major J. G. Semple-Lisle'', an autobiography, from

Tothill Fields Tothill Fields was an area of Westminster in the county of Middlesex that lay south of St James's Park on the north bank of the river Thames. One of its main features was the Tothill Fields Bridewell penitentiary. Between 1735 and 1752, it was ...

Prison.

Life

He was born James George Semple at

Irvine, Ayrshire Irvine ( ;
; ) is a town and former royal burgh on th ...

, the son of James Semple, an exciseman and peerage claimant to the title

Viscount Lisle The title of Viscount Lisle has been created six times in the Peerage of England. The first creation, on 30 October 1451, was for John Talbot, 1st Baron Lisle. Upon the death of his son Thomas at the Battle of Nibley Green in 1470, the visco ...

. In 1776 he was soldier serving in British North America, was taken prisoner in the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...

, then was released and came back to Great Britain. Semple came to know the novelist Elizabeth Sarah Gooch, with whom he had a brief relationship.Joseph W. Reed, Jr., ''Boswell and the Major'', The Kenyon Review Vol. 28, No. 2 (Mar., 1966), pp. 161–184, Published by: Kenyon College Marrying a goddaughter of Elizabeth Pierrepont, Duchess of Kingston-upon-Hull, he accompanied the latter to the continent of Europe. He made autobiographical claims about this period to 1784, involving

Frederick the Great Frederick II (; 24 January 171217 August 1786) was the monarch of Prussia from 1740 until his death in 1786. He was the last Hohenzollern monarch titled ''King in Prussia'', declaring himself ''King of Prussia'' after annexing Royal Prussia ...

during his bloodless campaign of 1778, Catharine of Russia, and

Prince Potemkin Prince Grigory Aleksandrovich Potemkin-Tauricheski (A number of dates as late as 1742 have been found on record; the veracity of any one is unlikely to be proved. This is his "official" birth-date as given on his tombstone.) was a Russian mi ...

. He also visited

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

. Returning to England in 1784, Semple was arrested for obtaining goods by false pretences, and on 2 September 1786 was sentenced to seven years'

transportation Transport (in British English) or transportation (in American English) is the intentional Motion, movement of humans, animals, and cargo, goods from one location to another. Mode of transport, Modes of transport include aviation, air, land tr ...

. Released on condition of leaving England, he went to Paris: he later claimed to have served on General Jean-François Berruyer's staff, and so to have witnessed in the

execution of Louis XVI Louis XVI, former Bourbon King of France since the Proclamation of the abolition of the monarchy, abolition of the monarchy, was publicly executed on 21 January 1793 during the French Revolution at the ''Place de la Révolution'' in Paris. At Tr ...

. Back England to avoid arrest, he was again, on 18 February 1795, sentenced to transportation for defrauding tradesmen. In

Newgate Prison Newgate Prison was a prison at the corner of Newgate Street and Old Bailey, just inside the City of London, England, originally at the site of Newgate, a gate in the Roman London Wall. Built in the 12th century and demolished in 1904, the pr ...

that year he had dinner with

James Boswell James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck (; 29 October 1740 ( N.S.) – 19 May 1795), was a Scottish biographer, diarist, and lawyer, born in Edinburgh. He is best known for his biography of the English writer Samuel Johnson, '' Life of Samuel ...

, to whom as a lawyer he applied for help with his case. Unable to obtain a pardon, Semple stabbed himself in Newgate Prison in 1796, when about to be shipped for

Botany Bay Botany Bay (Dharawal language, Dharawal: ''Kamay'') is an open oceanic embayment, located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, south of the Sydney central business district. Its source is the confluence of the Georges River at Taren Point a ...

, and then tried to starve himself to death. He recovered, however, and in 1798 was despatched in the ''Lady Jane Shore'' transport, bound for Australia. During the voyage a mutiny broke out, Semple's warning of the plot having been disregarded by the captain, Wilcox. Semple, with several others, was allowed to put off in a boat, landed in South America, and, after adventures, reached

Tangier Tangier ( ; , , ) is a city in northwestern Morocco, on the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. The city is the capital city, capital of the Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima region, as well as the Tangier-Assilah Prefecture of Moroc ...

, where he gave himself up, and was sent back to England. Semple was committed to Tothill Fields prison, and at the time of publishing his autobiography in 1799 was still confined there. In 1804 he offered himself to the government, as a spy. In 1807 he was charged with fraud, but was acquitted. In 1814 he was once again sentenced to transportation, in a fraud case for food. Pardoned by the Prince Regent, he undertook to go to

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

, and died in

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

in 1815.

Notes

External links

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Semple Lisle, James George 1759 births 1815 deaths Scottish fraudsters 18th-century Scottish autobiographers People from Irvine, North Ayrshire