Semple, Robert Baylor

Semple, Robert Baylor a Baptist minister, was born at Rose Mount, King and Queen Co., Va., Jan. 20, 1769. After completing his academical course, he commenced the study of law; but having been induced to join the Baptist Church, he turned his attention to the ministry, and on Sept. 20, 1790, he was ordained pastor of Bruington Church, King and Queen County, which position he held until his death, Dec. 25, 1831. He is identified with the earliest efforts of the Baptist Church to send the Gospel to the heathen. He was a member of the first Baptist General Convention; president for a number of years of the Virginia Baptist Missionary Society; was often moderator of the General Association of Virginia, and president of its board of managers. He was also an earnest friend of the Colonization Society; and when the Columbian College in the District of Columbia became involved, he accepted the charge of its financial concerns (in 1827), accomplishing his difficult task with great discretion and energy. He published a Catechism (1809): — a History of Virginia Baptists (1810): — and various Memoirs and Letters. See Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, 6, 305.