He married, first, in 1803 the Hon. Harriet Louisa Crofton, daughter of Baroness Crofton and Sir Edward Crofton, bart., M.P. (she died in 1805); secondly, in 1815, at the Duke of Wellington's headquarters during the occupation of Paris, Lady Sarah Lennox, daughter of Charles Lennox, fourth duke of Richmond [q. v.], who survived her husband, and died, leaving issue, 8 Sept. 1873.
[Hamilton's Hist. Grenadier Guards, vols. ii. and iii.; Gronow's Recollections; Narrative of Events connected with the Kaffir War of 1846–7, Graham's Town, 1848; Mrs. Ward's Five Years in Kaffirland, London, 1850; Gent. Mag. 1854, pt. ii. 300; papers relating to Maitland's colonial governments in the Record Office, London; Notes and Queries, 9th ser. v. 525.]
MAITLAND, Sir RICHARD, Lord Lethington (1496–1586), poet, lawyer, and collector of early Scottish poetry, was descended from an Anglo-Norman family, the earliest recorded ancestor being Thomas de Matalant or Matalan, who settled in Berwickshire in the reign of William the Lion (1165–1214). The ancestral keep of Thirlestane was the ‘darksome house’ which, according to the old ballad, one Sir Richard Matalant defended with such resolution and vigour against the army of Edward I that after a fortnight's assault the English were compelled to leave him ‘hail and feir’ within his ‘strength of stane.’ The lands of Lethington were acquired by Sir Robert Maitland from Sir John Gifford of Yester, the charter being confirmed by David II in 1345. Sir Richard, the poet and lawyer, was the son of Sir William Maitland of Lethington, who was killed at Flodden; his mother was Martha, daughter of George, lord Seton. He was born in 1496, and after completing his education at the university of St. Andrews, studied law at Paris. He was served heir to his father in 1513. Subsequently he was employed in the service of James V, from whom on 24 July 1537 he had a confirmation of the lands of Blyth (Reg. Mag. Sig. 1513–1546, entry 1696).
Knox states that it was by bribes given to Maitland and his relative Lord Seton that Cardinal Beaton was allowed to escape from prison at Seton in 1543 (Works, i. 97). The original authority for this statement, so far as Seton is concerned, was probably the Regent Arran, who, however, was himself suspected of having connived at Beaton's escape (Sadleir, State Papers, 2 vol. edition, i. 107). In September 1549 Maitland's castle of Lethington was burned by the English (Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 48), and he was one of a committee appointed to advise in the furnishing of oxen and pioneers for the army appointed to assemble at Edinburgh in April 1550 for the siege of Lauder. He was frequently named a commissioner for settling disputes on the borders; and being on 28 Aug. 1559 named one of a commission to treat for the delivery of prisoners taken by the English (Cal. State Papers, For. Ser. 1558–9, entry 1266), he signed the treaty of Upsetlington on 22 Sept. (ib. entry 1359). Sadler describes him as the ‘wisest man’ among the Scottish commissioners (State Papers, i. 448). Although ‘ever civil’ to George Wishart, Maitland, according to Knox, was not at the time of Wishart's martyrdom ‘persuaded in religion’ (Works, i. 137); and that, unlike his son the secretary, he continued loyal to the queen-regent during her conflicts with the lords of the congregation is attested by a line in his poem ‘On Queen Mary's Arrival in Edinburgh:’ ‘Madam, I was trew servant to thy mother.’ In his poem on the ‘Assembly of the Congregation’ in 1559, he advises a reconciliation by concessions on both sides.
Before the return of Mary to Scotland Maitland had become quite blind, but was, notwithstanding his infirmity, admitted in November 1561 an ordinary lord of session, sworn a member of the privy council, and on 20 Dec. 1562 nominated keeper of the great seal. This latter office he held till 1567, when he resigned it in favour of his son John [q. v.], afterwards Lord Maitland of Thirlestane. In his preface to the ‘House of Seton,’ Maitland states that on account of his blindness he was unable ‘to occupy himself as in times past,’ and that to ‘avoid idleness of mind,’ and because he thought it ‘perilous to “mell” with matters of great importance,’ he devoted his leisure to literary pursuits. Notwithstanding, therefore, the prominent part played in politics by his son William [q. v.], he kept himself aloof from the political disputes and troubles of his time. Yet, although little of a partisan, his sympathies seem to have been with the protestants, for when Queen Mary asked his advice as to the prosecution of Archbishop Hamilton of St. Andrews for celebrating the mass, he answered that ‘she must see her laws kept, or else she would get no obedience’ (Knox, ii. 379).
After his son, William Maitland [q. v.], joined the queen's party in the castle of Edinburgh, the castle of Lethington was seized by the party of the regent. On the surrender of Edinburgh Castle in 1573 it was not restored, and Sir Richard on 24 Aug. complained to Elizabeth that for four years he had been debarred from his house and place of Lethington, the use of which his
