as a practical politician has been attributed to lack of principle; but a failure from this cause is the exception, not the rule, and his was probably in one sense due to excess of principle, to his devotion to unattainable ideals. Few politicians have been more consistent or persistent in their main aims; and as to means he was not more unscrupulous than the majority of the politicians of his time. While by no means unmindful of his own personal interests, he, almost alone among contemporary Scottish politicians, was unflinchingly patriotic. Nor can it be affirmed that he was in any proper sense a traitor to his queen, if regard be had to essentials. On the contrary, he constantly strove to save her from herself, and at last sacrificed himself in a quixotic attempt to retrieve her hopeless fortunes.
Maitland was twice married: first to Janet Menteith, without issue; and secondly to Mary, daughter of Malcolm, third lord Fleming, by whom he had a son James and a daughter Margaret, married to Robert, first earl of Roxburgh. The son having become a Roman catholic retired to the continent, where he died without issue some time after 1620. He was the author of a 'Narrative of the Principal Acts of the Regency during the Minority, and other Papers relating to the History of Mary Queen of Scots,' edited by W. S. F., and privately printed at Ipswich in 1842 (copy in the library of the British Museum); and 'An Apologie for William Maitland of Ledington against the Lies and Calumnies of Jhone Leslie, Bishop of Ross, George Buchanan, and William Camden' (Addit MS, British Museum, 32092, f. 230). The estate of Lethington, which was restored to the family under the great seal, was sold 19 Feb. 1583-4 to Sir John Maitland, first lord of Thirlestane [q. v.]
[A life of Maitland is included in Chalmers's Mary Queen of Scots. A general vindication of his political conduct is attempted in Skelton's Maitland of Lethington, 2 vols. 1887-8. A large number of his letters are in the British Museum, the State Paper Office, the Library of Hatfield, and elsewhere. In addition to the authorities for his life mentioned in the text, those referred to for this period under Mary should be consulted.]
MAITLAND, WILLIAM (1693?–1757), topographer, born at Brechin about 1693, was originally occupied as a hair merchant, and in that capacity travelled in Sweden, Denmark, and Germany. He appears to have acquired some wealth. At length, settling in London, he turned his attention to the study of antiquities, and produced several ponderous compilations, which were well received at the time, but are now of small repute. On 12 April 1733 he was elected F.R.S. (Thomson, Hist. Roy. Soc., App. vol. iv. p. xxxix), and on 13 March 1736 F.S.A., but resigned the fellowship of the latter society in December 1740 on his return to Scotland ([Gough,] Chron. List of Soc. Antiq. 1798, pp. 5, 7 He died at Montrose on 16 July if 57. According to Gough, he was 'self-conceited, credulous, knew little, and wrote worse' (British Topography, ii. 572). In 1739 he published 'The History of London, from its Foundation by the Romans to the present time. … With the several accounts of Westminster, Middlesex, Southwark, and other parts within the Bill of Mortality. The whole illustrated with a variety of fine cuts,' fol., London, 1739 (another edit., brought down to 1756, 2 vols. 1756, 3rd edit. 1700, 4th edit. 1769). An edition, considerably enlarged and continued to 1772, by the Rev. John Entick, appeared in two folio volumes in 1775. His next publication was 'The History of Edinburgh, from its Foundation to the present time … with the several accounts of the Parishes. . . within the Suburbs, the antient and present state of Leith, and … a great variety of cuts of the principal buildings, fol., Edinburgh, 1753. About 1750 Maitland proposed to write a general description of Scotland, and sent with that object a printed letter and a lengthy list of queries to every minister in the country. The return fell so very short of his expectation that he abandoned the design in disgust; but several years after he made a tour over the whole kingdom himself, the result of which appeared in the first volume of his 'History and Antiquities of Scotland from the earliest account to the Death of James I … 1437; and from that period to the Accession of James VI to the Crown of England, 1603, by another hand,' 2 vols, fol., London, 1757, a posthumous work. What few returns came to his hands are mentioned by Gough in his 'British Topography' under the respective shires. A letter from Maitland to Dr. Thomas Birch, dated 1754, is in the British Museum, Additional MS. 4313.
[Nichols's Lit. Anecd. ii. 89, v. 382; Anderson's Scottish Nation, iii. 83.]
MAITLAND, WILLIAM FULLER (1813–1876), picture collector, born 10 March 1813, was the second, but eldest surviving, son and heir of Ebenezer Fuller Maitland, of Stansted, Essex, and Park Place, Henley-on-Thames. He was educated by private tutors until he went to Trinity College, Cambridge. He graduated B.A. in 1835, and M.A. in 1839. Although he never had
