turned to Scotland in 1530, and taught theology at St Andrews 'till he came
to a great age; for in the year 1547, at the national council of the church of
Scotland at Linlithgow, he subscribed, by proxy, in quality of dean of theology
of St Andrews, not being able to come himself by reason of his age, which was
then seventy-eight, and shortly after he died."
Anthony Wood has discovered from a manuscript note of Bryan Twyne that Major was at some period of his life at Oxford, but in what house is unknown, "unless," says bishop Nicholson, " in Osney Abbey, whose melodious bells he commends." If we could suppose Wood to have mistaken a century, the following might apply to the subject of our memoir during the year when he is said by Mackenzie to have gone to France. Speaking of St John's school belonging to St John's Hospital, he says, " all that I find material of this school is, that it, with others of the same faculty, were repaired by one John Major, an Inceptor in the same faculty, anno 1426."[1]
MAITLAND, (Sir) Richard, of Lethington, the collector and preserver of our early Scottish poetry, and himself a poet of no mean rank, was the son of William Maitland of Lethington and Thirlstane, and Martha, daughter of George, lord Seaton. He was born in the year 1496; but his father having perished at the calamitous battle of Flodden, he was at an early period of life deprived of paternal guidance and instruction. After going through the usual course of academical education at St Andrews, he repaired to France, then the resort of all young Scotsmen of rank, and more especially of students of law. The time of his return is altogether unknown; he is supposed by one of his biographers[2] to have been absent from his native country during the earlier part of the minority of James V.; or if he did return previous to that period, his name is not connected with any of its turmoils. Before his departure from Scotland, he is believed to have been connected with the court of James IV. We are at all events certain, that on his return he was successively employed by James V., the regent Arran, and Mary of Lorraine. To his services, during the regency of the latter, he alludes in his poem on "The Quenis Arryvale in Scotland:"
Madam, I wes trew servant! to thy mother,
And in hir favoure stude ay thankfullie
Of my estait, als weill as ony other.
A passage in Knox's history has attached some suspicion to the good name of Sir Richard, at this period of his life. He is alleged to have been instrumental in procuring, for bribes, the liberation of cardinal Beaton from the custody of his kinsman, Lord Seaton. Of his share in the guilt of this transaction, such as it is, no proof exists; while there is something very like direct evidence that he was attached to the English and protestant party, and consequently, in favouring Beaton, would have been acting against sentiments which the most of men hold sacred. That evidence consists in an entry in the Criminal Record, to the following effect: "Richard Maitland, of Lethingtoune, found George, lord Seytoune, as his surety, that he would enter within the castle of Edinburgh, or elsewhere, when and where it might please the lord governor, on forty-eight hours' warning: and that the said Richard shall remain a good and faithful subject, and remain within the kingdom, and have no intelligence with our ancient enemies the English, under the pain of £10,000."[3]
