Sarah Jane Semple was the daughter of Robert Semple, tavern owner and Sheriff of Cumberland County, PA, and Lydia Steel, the daughter of the Rev. Capt. John Steel of Carlisle, PA., aka "the Fighting Parson". She was the first and only wife of Col. Thomas Butler who married her when he returned from the Revolutionary War and settled on a farm outside of Carlisle, Cumberland County, PA. Famous as one of the "Fighting Butlers of Carlisle," Thomas returned to a full time military career after he was injured in the Battle of the Miami massacre in 1791 which played a large roll in the United States forming a standing army. Sarah Jane and the children moved with him to Ft. Pitt in Pittsburgh where he put down the Whiskey Rebellion and then to Kingsport, TN, where he was commander of the fort with instructions to try and prevent settlers from taking Indian lands--largely unsuccessfully.
During this time Thomas and his younger brother Edward who was also under his command, became friends with Andrew and Rachel Jackson. (They were fellow Masons.) When Edward died, his children became wards of the Jacksons. When Thomas died two years later, he was second in command of the entire US Army under Gen. Wilkinson. Wilkinson courtmartialed Thomas in New Orleans for refusing to cut his queue which was the badge of Rev. War Officers .
The Jacksons became wards of Thomas and Sarah's three youngest children--Robert, Lydia and William Edward who were living in the Nashville area. They oversaw the education of the children and married all three to their nieces and nephews. (Their older brother Judge Thomas Butler was studying law with his uncle Steel Semple in Pittsburgh when his father Col. Thomas Butler died of yellow fever in New Orleans.) J.M.W.