Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/328

308 M A I M A I MAITLAND, JOHN (1614-1682), earl and afterwards duke of Lauderdale in the peerage of Scotland, was a great- grandson of Sir RICHARD MAITLAND (q.v.). In early life a Presbyterian, lie attended the Westminster Assembly in 1643 as an elder of the Church of Scotland; and he was a party to the surrender of Charles I. to the English army in 1645. Soon afterwards, changing his politics, he became a zealous supporter of the royal cause, and promoter of the Engagement for raising forces for the king s rescue. He was taken prisoner at the battle of Worcester; and, on being set at liberty in 1660, he repaired to tbe Hague and accompanied Charles IT. to Scotland. From 1663 he was virtually ruler of Scotland, at first moderate in his counsels, but afterwards severe in his measures against the Covenanters. In 1672 he was made duke of Lauderdale and a Knight of tbe Garter ; and he had also an English peerage conferred on him (with the title of earl of Guildford) in 1674. One of the administrative council known as the " Cabal," he eventually fell into disgrace, and died in 1682. His dukedom and English honours expired with him ; the earldom of Lauderdale passed to his brother Charles, and is still in possession of his descendants. The voluminous correspondence of Lauderdale, which is still extant, shows that, in addition to a remarkable power over men of all classes, great watchful ness and resolution, and very clear ideas of what was needed to keep Scotland peaceful and in a state of usefulness for further ends, he was possessed of no slight learning. MAITLAND, SIR RICHARD (1496-1586), an early Scottish lawyer and poet, was born in 1496. His father, William Maitland of Lethington and Thirlstane, fell at Flodden ; his mother was a daughter of George, Lord Seton. He studied law at the university of St Andrews, and afterwards in France. He was iu 1552 one of the commissioners to settle matters with the English about the debatable lands on the borders, and about that time had the honour of knighthood conferred upon him. In 1554 he was made an extraordinary lord of session. About 1561 he seems to have lost his sight, but this did not render him incapable of attending to public business, as he was the same year admitted an ordinary lord of session by the title of Lethington, and in 1562 was nominated lord privy seal. He resigned this latter office in 1567, in favour of John, prior of Coldingham, his second son, but he sat on the bench till he attained his eighty-eighth year. He was an amiable and accomplished man, and died in 1586, aged ninety, after having been employed in public offices for upwards of seventy years. His eldest son, William, forms the subject of next article. His second son, John, was a lord of session, and was made a lord of parliament in 1590, by the title, of Lord Maitland of Thirlstane, in which he was succeeded by his son John, also for some time a lord of session, who was created earl of Lauderdale in 1624. The latter was the father of John Maitland, duke of Lauderdale, noticed above. One of Sir Richard s daughters, Mary, assisted her father in his studies, and also wrote verses. The poems of Sir Eicliard Maitland, none of them lengthy, are somewhat satirical, and are principally directed against the abuses of his time. He must, however, be regarded as the industrious collector and preserver of many pieces of ancient Scottish poetry. These were copied into two large volumes, one in folio and another in quarto, the former written by himself, and the latter by his daughter. After being in the possession of his descendant the duke of Lau derdale, these volumes were purchased at the sale of the duke s library by the celebrated Samuel Pepys, who was one of the first collectors of rare books in England. They have since been pre served in the Pepysian Library, Magdalene College, Cambridge. They lay there unnoticed for many years till Bishop Percy pub lished one of the poems in his Kcliqucs of English Poetry. Several of the pieces were then transcribed by John Pinkerton, who after wards published them under the title of Ancient Scottish Poems, comprising Pieces written from about 1420 till 1586, with Notes and a Glossary, 2 vols. 8vo, London, 1786. Sir Richard left in manu script a history of the family of Seton, and a volume of legal decisions collected by him between the years 1550 and 1565. Both are preserved in the Advocates Library, Edinburgh, and the latter work is still unpublished. The Poems of Sir Richard Maitland were printed in 1830 by the Maitland Club, a literary society, founded in Glasgow iu 1828, which took its name from him. The MS. used for the purpose was one preserved in the Drummond col- lection in the library of the university of Edinburgh. It seems to have been written shortly before the year 1627, when it was presented by Drummond to the library. In 1829 there was also printed for the club 2 he History of the House of Seytoun to the year 1559, with a continuation to 1687 by Alexander, Viscount Kingston. MAITLAND, WILLIAM (c. 1525-1573), best known in Scottish history by the name of his father s estate of Lethington, near Haddington, where he resided, was the eldest son of Sir Richard Maitland, noticed above. Bom about 1525, and partly educated in France, he was at an early age initiated- into public life. He was made secretary of state by Mary of Guise in 1558 ; but the favour with which he regarded the views of the reforming party soon exposed him to the queen mother s resentment. Ho became one of the "lords of the congregation," and was also one of the Scottish commissioners who negotiated with Queen Elizabeth regarding the terms on which she would agree to aid the Reformers. Soon after Mary s arrival in Scotland, he was employed in two embassies to Eng land, and was made first an extraordinary and then an ordinary lord of session. He had a controversy with Knox, whom he accused in the General Assembly of 15G4 of teaching seditious doctrine. He went again to Eng land as ambassador to notify the queen s marriage to Darnley, and was implicated both in the conspiracy against Rizzio and in the Kirk of Field tragedy, though he was also a member of the secret council at which the deposi tions of Darnley s murderers were taken, and signed the act of council accusing Mary of being the author of the crime. He fought against the queen at Langside, but at the conference at York identified himself in a measure with her interests. At the instance of the regent Murray he was in 1569 arrested as a participant in the king s murder, and would have been brought to trial but for a ruse of Kirkcaldy of Grange, who, as commander of Edin burgh Castle, conveyed him thither as a prisoner. The two principal representatives of Mary s cause, Lethington and Grange, who may be described as the forlorn hope of the captive queen, held the castle of Edinburgh for some time against the regent Morton and an English force; and, when surrender became a matter of necessity, they made their submission, not to the regent, but to the English queen. Kirkcaldy was executed ; but Maitland died in prison, it was generally believed of poison administered by his own hand, on 9th June 1573. "Secretary Mait land" was a man of great learning and power of repartee, wanting in integrity, but skilled in intrigue, and reputed the most accomplished and most versatile statesmen that his country has produced ; in the opinion of his con temporaries his capacities were too great for the narrow sphere of Scottish politics. MAITTAIRE, MICHEL (1668-1747), bibliographer and editor, was a. native of France, and was born in 1668. On the revocation of the edict of Nantes his parents, who were Protestants, removed to England, where he was educated at Westminster and at Christ Church, Oxford, graduating in 1696. From 1695 to 1699 he taught in Westminster School, but afterwards devoted himself exclu sively to private teaching and editorial work. He died on August 4, 1747. Maittaire vas a great lover of books, but no critic ; and his numerous editions take rank only as compilations. His works in clude De Grtecse Linguae Dialcctis, 1706 ; Stephanorum Ilistoria,

vitas ipsorum et libros complcctens, 1713 ; Ilistoria Typographorum