[The chief authorities for Lauderdale's life are Baillie's Letters and Journals; Burnet's Lives of the Dukes of Hamilton, and Hist. of his own Time; Mackenzie's Memoirs; Wodrow's Hist. of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland; the Hamilton Papers, published by the Camden Society; and especially the vast collection of the Lauderdale Papers in the manuscripts room at the British Museum, three volumes of selections from which have also been issued by the Camden Society.]
MAITLAND, JOHN, Lord Ravelrig, and fifth Earl of Lauderdale (1650?–1710), born about 1650, was second son of Charles, third earl of Lauderdale [q. v.], and younger brother of Richard, fourth earl [q. v.] He passed advocate at the Scottish bar, 30 July 1680. He afterwards received the honour of knighthood, and on 12 March 1685 was elected a commissioner to the estates for Midlothian. Unlike his relatives, he concurred in the revolution. He was sworn a member of the privy council, and on 28 Oct. 1689 was appointed one of the lords of session with the title of Lord Ravelrig. About the same time he was made colonel of the Edinburghshire militia. He succeeded to the earldom of Lauderdale on the death of his elder brother Richard in 1695, and on 8 March 1696 took the oaths and his seat in parliament. He was a supporter of the union. He died 30 Aug. 1710. Macky describes him as ‘a well-bred man, handsome in his person,’ and as also ‘meaning well to his country,’ but coming ‘far short of his predecessors, who for three or four generations were chancellors and secretaries of state for that kingdom’ (Memoirs, pp. 230–1). By his wife Margaret Cunningham, only child of Alexander, tenth earl of Glencairn, he had three sons and a daughter. Of the sons, Charles, sixth earl of Lauderdale (d. 1744), served under the Duke of Argyll at Sheriffmuir, was master of the mint in Scotland, representative peer of Scotland and lord-lieutenant of co. Edinburgh, and married Elizabeth, daughter of James Ogilvy, fourth earl of Findlater and first earl of Seafield; his sixth son, Frederick Lewis, is noticed under Maitland, Sir Frederick Lewis.
[Macky's Memoirs; Douglas's Scottish Peerage (Wood), i. 73.]
MAITLAND, JOHN GORHAM (1818–1863), civil servant, born in 1818, was the son of Samuel Roffey Maitland [q. v.] He became a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, after having obtained the third place in the classical and the seventh in the mathematical tripos of 1839. He was called to the bar, but found little practice. He was the author of two pamphlets, ‘Church Leases,’ 1849, and ‘Property and Income Tax,’ 1853. He was secretary to the civil service commission in succession to his friend James Spedding [q. v.] from 1855 until his death in 1863. His wife Emma, daughter of John Frederic Daniell [q. v.], survived him with a son and two daughters.
[Personal knowledge.]
MAITLAND, Sir PEREGRINE (1777–1854), general and colonial governor, son of Thomas Maitland of Shrubs Hall, New Forest, by Caroline, daughter of George Dewar (who had married a daughter of Peregrine Bertie, second duke of Ancaster), was born at Longparish House, Hampshire, in 1777.
On 25 June 1792 he was appointed ensign in the 1st foot-guards (grenadier guards), in which he became lieutenant and captain in 1794, and captain and lieutenant-colonel in 1803. He served with his regiment in Flanders in 1794, in the unsuccessful descent on Ostend in 1798, at Vigo and Corunna in 1809 (medal), and afterwards at Walcheren. He became brevet colonel in 1812, served with his regiment at Cadiz, and was second in command in the attack on Seville (see Gurwood, vi. 75), commanded the 1st brigade of guards at the passage of Bidassoa, at the battle of Nivelle, and at the passage of the Nive, on 9–12 Dec. 1813 (gold medal), also at the operations before Bayonne, at the action of Bidart, and the passage of the Adour; he became a major-general in 1814, and was made C.B. on 4 June 1815. He commanded the 1st brigade of guards, consisting of the 1st and 3rd battalions grenadier guards, each one thousand strong, at Quatrebras and Waterloo, and at the occupation of Paris (K.C.B. and medal) (ib. viii. 147, 150). He received the foreign decorations of the third class of St. Vladimir of Russia and of Willem in Holland for the Waterloo campaign.
Maitland was lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada from 3 June 1818 to 1828, lieutenant-governor of Nova Scotia from 1828 to 1834, commander-in-chief of the Madras army from 11 Oct. 1836 until succeeded by Sir Jasper Nicolls at Christmas 1838. He resigned from dislike of the East India Company's failure to enforce its order exempting native Christians from compulsory attendance at native religious festivals. Governor and commander-in-chief at the Cape of Good Hope from 18 March 1844 to 27 Jan. 1847, he was replaced by Sir Henry Eldred Pottinger [q.v.] . The Kaffir war of 1846–7 began during his government.
Maitland became a full general in 1846. He was colonel in succession of the 76th and 17th regiments, and was made a G.C.B. in 1852. He died at his residence, Eaton Place West, London, on 30 May 1854.
