Richard Maitland

Sir Richard Maitland of Lethington and Thirlstane (1496‑August 1, 1586), was a Senator of the College of Justice, an Ordinary Lord of Session from 1561 until 1584, and notable Scottish poet. He was served heir to his father, Sir William Maitland of Lethington, Haddingtonshire, and Thirlestane, Berwickshire, on 15 October 1515.

In his later years he was blind, and occupied himself by writing a history of The House and Surname of Seaton, and by writing poems, e.g., On the New Year, On the Queene's Maryage, etc. He held various offices, chiefly legal, but appears to have kept as far as possible out of the fierce political struggles of his time, and to have been a genially satirical humorist.

He married Mariotta (or Margaret) (d.March 1586), daughter of Sir Thomas Cranstoun of Corsbie, in Berwickshire. They had three sons and four daughters, including

• William Maitland of Lethington, Secretary of State to Mary I of Scotland, and
• Sir John Maitland, 1st Lord Maitland of Thirlestane, Lord Chancellor of Scotland; and
• Mary (d. January 1596), who married (as his first wife) Sir Alexander Lauder of Haltoun, Knt., (buried in Holyrood Abbey 14 November 1627), Sheriff Principal of Edinburgh.
• Elizabeth, who married William Douglas of Whittinghame.

References

• Miscellanea Genealogica et Heraldica, edited by Joseph Jackson Howard, LL.D.,F.S.A., vol. 2, London, 1876, p.206, where his date of death is given as 1st August 1586.
• The Genealogy of the House and Surname of Setoun, by Sir Richard Maitland of Lethington, Knight, March 1561, with the Chronicle of the House of Setoun compiled in metre (prose) by John Kamington alias Peter Manye, printed at Edinburgh, October 1830.
• The Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, Second Series, edited by P.Hume Brown, M.A., LLD., Edinburgh, 1900, vol.2, 1627-1628, p.117.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Cousin, John William (1910). A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London: J. M. Dent & Sons – via Wikisource.