Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Maitland, William (1693?-1757)

1446907Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 35 — Maitland, William (1693?-1757)1893Gordon Goodwin

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.]

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