Mary Maitland

Mary Maitland (born about 1550,[1] died 1596) was a Scottish writer believed to be the transcriber of the Quarto Volume of the Maitland Manuscripts,[2] an important source for the Scots literature of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries. She recorded and preserved her father's extensive writings as his sight became increasingly poor, eventually resulting in his blindness.[1]

Mary Maitland
Bornc. 1550
Died1596
Other namesMarie Maitland
This article is about the writer (died 1596). For the writer (1839-1919), see Mary Ann Maitland.

Early life
Two pages of the Maitland Quarto Manuscript transcribed by Mary.[3] The original is in the Pepys Library in Cambridge.

Mary Maitland was the daughter of Sir Richard Maitland of Lethington and Thirlstane (1496 – 1 August 1586)[2] and Mariotta (or Margaret) (d. March 1586), who was the daughter of Sir Thomas Cranstoun of Corsbie, Berwickshire, Scotland.

Mary had three brothers and three sisters.[4] Her eldest brother, William Maitland of Lethington (1525x30-1573), was the Scottish Secretary of State from 1558 until 1571.[5] Her second eldest brother was John Maitland, 1st Lord Maitland of Thirlestane (1543-1595), Lord Chancellor of Scotland.[5]

The Maitland Manuscripts

The Maitland folio and quarto manuscripts are written in Italic and Secretary hands. John Pinkerton was the first to assert that Mary or Marie Maitland was the scribe. Her name appears twice on the titlepage of the quarti, securely linking her with the manuscript.[6] There are poems within the Maitland quarto which name, or are dedicated, to her.[6] Scholarship by Sarah Dunnigan and Evelyn Newlyn has helped to bring critical attention to Mary, particularly in relation to these poems.[7]

Family and relationships

On 9 August 1586 Mary married Alexander Lauder of "Haltoun", or "Hatton", (buried in Holyrood Abbey 14 November 1627), Sheriff Principal of Edinburgh. Haltoun is an estate near Kirkliston.[6] Alexander Lauder was a son of William Lauder (died 1596) and Jean Cockburn (died 1600).[8] Jean Cockburn's aunt, Elizabeth Douglas, Lady Temple Hall, was a poet, working in the same circle of East Lothian poets.[9]

Alexander Lauder with his younger brother got into trouble in 1596. They threatened Alexander McGill, the Provost of Corstorphine "under colour of friendship" because they wanted him to sign a contract.[10]

Mary Maitland, Lady Haltoun's children included:

  • Alexander Lauder younger of Hatton (died 1623), who married Susannah Cunningham, a daughter of the Earl of Glencairn
  • Richard Lauder of Hatton (1589-1675), his younger daughter Elizabeth married Charles Maitland, later Earl of Lauderdale.[11]
  • Jane Lauder, who married (1) Alexander Hay of Smithfield, (2) Bryce Sempill of Boghauche and Cathcart
  • Helen Lauder (died 1620), who married Thomas Young of Leny, a lawyer.[12]

Mary Maitland died in June 1596. Soon after, Alexander Lauder married Annabella Bellenden, a sister of the lawyer, Lewis or Ludovick Bellenden of Auchnoule, and sister-in-law of the courtier Margaret Livingstone, Countess of Orkney. Annabella would be a stepmother for their young children.[13]

George Lauder, a son of Alexander Lauder and Annabella Bellenden,[14][15][1] was a soldier. He was a friend of William Drummond of Hawthornden and gained a considerable reputation as a poet.[16]

References
  1. Crockett, William Shillinglaw (1893). Minstrelsy of the Merse: The Poets and Poetry of Berwickshire : a Country Anthology. J. and R. Parlane. p. 35.
  2. "Maitland, Mary (d. 1596), writer". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/68146. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  3. Lethington, Richard Maitland of (2012-02-12), English: Two pages from the Maitland Quarto Manuscript of Scots literature. Sixteenth Century. Held by the Pepys Library in Cambridge., retrieved 2019-09-23
  4. Henderson, Thomas Finlayson, "Maitland Richard (1496-1586)", Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, vol. 35, retrieved 2019-09-23
  5. Loughlin, Mark. "Maitland, William, of Lethington". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
  6. Joanna M. Martin, The Maitland Quarto (Scottish Text Society, 2015), pp. 28-32.
  7. Chowdhury, Sajed (2012). "'Thair is mair constancie in o[u]r sex / Then euer ama[n]g men hes bein': The Metaphysics of Authorship in the Maitland Quarto Manuscript (ca. 1586)". Textual Cultures. 7: 50–76. doi:10.2979/textcult.7.1.50. S2CID 144306996 – via JSTOR.
  8. Jane Stewart Smith, The Grange of St. Giles (Edinburgh, 1898), pp. 239-40: Register of the Privy Council', 1578-1585 (Edinburgh, 1880), pp. 635, 637.
  9. Sebastiaan Verweij, The Literary Culture of Early Modern Scotland (Oxford, 2017), pp. 81, 84-87.
  10. Winifred Coutts, The Business of the College of Justice in 1600 (Edinburgh: Stair Society, 2003), pp. 561-2, NRS CS7/187/346v.
  11. Jane Stewart Smith, The Grange of St. Giles (Edinburgh, 1898), pp. 245.
  12. Helen Lauder's will details her costume and jewellery, National Records of Scotland CC8/8/51 pp. 151-2.
  13. Jane Stewart Smith, The Grange of St. Giles (Edinburgh, 1898), p. 241.
  14. Bayne, Thomas Wilson, "Lauder George", Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, vol. 32, retrieved 2019-09-23
  15. Bayne, Thomas Wilson (1892). "Lauder, George" . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 32. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 195.
  16. Jane Stewart Smith, The Grange of St. Giles (Edinburgh, 1898), pp. 243-5.
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