The Life of Major J.G. Semple Lisle;

£950 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

Sabin 41421, “Includes his adventures in South America, description of the Province of Rio Grande c.”; Ferguson 317, “The autobiography of this celebrated adventurer, including a full account of the mutiny of the Lady Shore in which he was carried as a convict to New South Wales, and of the adventures of the landing party in their journey to Rio de Janeiro.” Semple was the born in Ayrshire, the son of an exciseman, in 1776 he served briefly in America before being taken prisoner. He was “relieved early in 1777, by Lord Percy, whose retirement from the Army his country may justly regret, and Sir Peter Parker, then commander at Rhode Island. [He] was soon after wounded; and was in consequence sent home from New York, in the Bridget of Liverpool…” He then was involved with Mrs. Eliza Gooch, the novelist - “My amour with Mrs. Gooch having been related by the lady herself, in her Memoirs, though not quite correctly , I Ieave as it is… “ He then claims to have accompanied Frederick the Great in the campaign of 1778, to have been introduced the Catherine the Great, “… to have accompanied Prince Potyomkin to the Crimea, and to have designed a uniform for the Russian Army.” [ ODNB ] In 1784 he was arrested for obtaining goods under false pretences and sentenced, in 1786, to seven years transportation. Released on condition of quitting England he moved to Paris, where he witnessed the execution of Louis XVI, returning to England shortly afterwards to avoid arrest. In 1795, returning to

• Binding: Hardcover

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