1833–4. The descent of the Stirling family is traced from Walter de Striuelyng (fl. 1150), grandfather of Thomas de Striuelyng (d. 1227), chancellor of Scotland (see Fraser's Stirlings of Keir, 1858, passim). William's father, Archibald Stirling of Keir and Cawder, was born at Cawder on 2 Aug. 1769, and sailed for Montego Bay in 1789, to take charge of the family estates in Jamaica; the property had been built up by his uncle Archibald Stirling (1710–1783). For nearly twenty-five years he continued a planter there. In 1831 he succeeded his brother James in the family estates, and settled at Keir, near Dunblane. A keen agriculturist and breeder of shorthorns, he drained and improved his lands, and, though his West Indian property greatly deteriorated in value, his fortunes were augmented in Scotland by the discovery of coal, iron, and freestone upon his estates. He died on 9 April 1847.
William was educated at the private school of Daniel Baxter Langley, vicar of Olney in Buckinghamshire. He entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1835 (pensioner 28 April, fellow-commoner 13 Oct.), gradating B.A. in 1839, M.A. in 1843. His college tutor was Whewell. Upon leaving Cambridge at the close of 1839 he spent some time abroad, visiting Spain and the Levant. He explored Mount Lebanon, stayed with the monks on Mount Carmel, and returned to England from Syria in 1842. The study of the Bible amid the scenery of Palestine prompted him to versify a number of episodes of the Old Testament, and a few copies of his ‘Songs of the Holy Land’ were printed for private circulation (Edinburgh, 1846; 2nd ser. London, 1847; the two series were united and published in 1848, London, 4to).
Renewed visits to Spain induced a growing interest in Spanish art. The subject was practically unexplored, being represented in English by such perfunctory essays as the dramatist Cumberland's ‘Anecdotes of Spanish Painting’ and A. O'Neil's ‘Dictionary of Spanish Painters,’ 1834. Nor was either France or Germany much better off in this respect. Stirling's scholarly work on the subject thus proved to a large extent a revelation. It appeared in 1848 as ‘Annals of the Artists of Spain’ (London, 3 vols. 8vo; twenty-five copies with extra plates and adornments command high prices—one was sold in 1895 for 17l.; a new edition with emendations, 4 vols. 1891, 8vo); and, despite a tendency to discursiveness and over-elaboration of style, the good sense and taste displayed by an author so young were no less remarkable than the amount of precise information which his work embodied. The part relating to Velazquez was afterwards rewritten and published separately as ‘Velazquez and his Works’ (London, 1855, 8vo; translated into German, Berlin, 1856, and into French by G. Brunet, Paris, 1865). Two articles in ‘Fraser's Magazine’ for April and May 1851 showed that Spain was about to reveal new subjects and fresh sources of information; and in the following year appeared ‘The Cloister Life of the Emperor Charles V’ (London, 1852, 8vo; 2nd edit. 1853; 3rd edit. 1853; new edit. 1891, incorporating new materials contributed to ‘Philobiblon Miscellanies,’ vol. ii. 1856, besides American editions and German and Dutch versions). Stirling's work, which censures somewhat harshly the work of Robertson and other predecessors in the same field, is based mainly upon Siguenças's ‘History of the Order of St. Jerome’ of 1605 and upon the Gonzales manuscript in the archives of the French foreign office. These archives were under the jealous custodianship of Mignet, who was himself meditating a work upon the subject (Mignet, Charles V, son abdication, &c., 1854), and it required all Stirling's pertinacity to effect his object of transcribing the documents. When finished the book was dedicated to Richard Ford [q. v.] as a mark of ‘admiration and friendship.’ It was warmly praised by Ford, Milman, and the American historians, Prescott, Motley, and Kirk; but its position has necessarily been somewhat impaired by the rivalry of Mignet's book and by the elaborate Belgian monograph of Gachard (‘Retraite et Mort de Charles V,’ 3 vols., Brussels, 1854–5).
In the meantime (1847) Stirling had succeeded to the family estates, which he disentailed in 1849. Between that date and 1851 he remodelled the mansion at Keir, removing the entrance and turning the old hall into a library. In 1852 he sold the estate of Hampden in Jamaica, which from being a highly lucrative property had ceased to pay expenses. In 1852 he was returned unopposed for the county of Perth as a ‘moderate conservative,’ and in 1857, 1859, and 1865 he was re-elected without a contest. In 1868 he was unexpectedly defeated, but in 1874 was restored by a large majority. His speeches in Scotland were much appreciated for their point and flavour, but he took a very small part in debate, although he did effective work as a member of several commissions—of the universities commission, 1859, of the historical manuscripts commission, and from 1872 of the Scottish education board.
In addition to his seat at Keir, Stirling
