Frederic William Maitland facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Frederic William Maitland FBA
Born	28 May 1850 London, England
Died	c. 19 December 1906 Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, Spain
Alma mater	Trinity College, Cambridge
Spouse(s)	Florence Henrietta Fisher ​ (m. 1886)​
Children	Fredegond Shove (b. 1889)
Scientific career
Institutions	Downing College, Cambridge
Notable students	Nellie Neilson
Influences	Henry Sidgwick Paul Vinogradoff
Influenced	Mary Bateson Geoffrey Elton John Neville Figgis Harold Laski S. F. C. Milsom Susan Reynolds Patrick Wormald
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Frederic William Maitland (born May 28, 1850 – died December 19, 1906) was an English historian and lawyer. Many people see him as the main founder of modern English legal history, which is the study of how laws have changed over time.

Early Life and School Days

Frederic William Maitland was born in London in 1850. He was the only son of John Gorham Maitland, who was a barrister (a type of lawyer). His father also worked as a civil servant, helping the government.

Frederic went to a school in Brighton and then to Eton College in 1863. At Eton, he wasn't famous for sports or studies, but a friend thought he would become a "philosophic Charles Lamb" (meaning a thoughtful writer).

In 1869, he went to Trinity College, Cambridge. He first studied math, but didn't enjoy it much. Then, he was inspired by his teacher, Henry Sidgwick, and switched to a new subject called "moral sciences" in 1870. He did very well, earning top honors in 1872. He also won a special scholarship for international law.

Frederic was well-liked by his friends. He became the secretary and then president of the Cambridge Union Society, a debating club. He also loved exercise and rowed for Trinity and ran for the university. He even won a "blue," which means he represented the university in three-mile races.

Sadly, Frederic's mother died when he was very young. Both his father and grandfather also passed away while he was still at school. From his grandfather, he inherited a manor house (a large country house) and some land. This gave him money until the farming economy struggled in the 1880s.

Starting a Career in Law

After Cambridge, Frederic tried to become a professor of philosophy at Trinity College in 1875, but he didn't get the job. He then decided to become a lawyer. He joined Lincoln's Inn, a place where lawyers train, in 1872 and became a qualified lawyer in 1876. He became good at equity law (a type of fair law) and conveyancer (a lawyer who handles property transfers).

Frederic started writing a book about property law, but he stopped because he was frustrated with some parts of English property law. He wrote about his feelings in an article in 1879, asking for big changes to property law. He wrote more articles on this topic between 1881 and 1883.

Meeting a Key Influence

In 1884, Frederic met Paul Vinogradoff, a Russian historian who studied the Middle Ages. Vinogradoff was in England to look at old legal records.

Frederic later said that meeting Vinogradoff "determined the rest of my life." It made him realize how much there was to learn about English legal history. He was so surprised that a Russian knew more about English legal records than he did! Soon after, he visited the Public Record Office (where old government documents are kept) to start his own research.

His first big work from this research was Pleas of the Crown for the County of Gloucester. This was a copy of an old legal document from 1221. He paid to publish it himself in 1884 and dedicated it to Vinogradoff.

Back to Cambridge and Marriage

In 1884, Frederic was chosen to be a "Reader" (a type of professor) in English law at Cambridge University. This job was specially funded by his old teacher, Henry Sidgwick. In 1887, Frederic published a three-volume book called Bracton's Note-Book, which was Vinogradoff's idea. He also wrote many articles about legal history for the Law Quarterly Review magazine.

On July 20, 1886, Frederic married Florence Henrietta Fisher. He had met her through a friend. Florence was the sister of H. A. L. Fisher, who later became a government minister and wrote a book about Frederic's life. Frederic and Florence had two daughters, Ermengard and Fredegond. Their marriage was very happy.

Helping Legal History Grow

In 1887, Frederic helped start the Selden Society. This group was created to help people study the history of English law, mainly by publishing old legal documents. Frederic was the first "literary director" of the Society, meaning he guided its publications. He personally edited eight books for the Society and checked the proofs (early versions) of every book.

Becoming a Professor

In 1888, Frederic became the Downing Professor of the Laws of England at Cambridge, which made him a fellow of Downing College, Cambridge. On October 13, 1888, he gave his first lecture, titled "Why the History of English Law is Not Written." This job came with a house, and his family settled in happily. He often hosted music gatherings and kept interesting pets like a monkey, a meerkat, and a badger!

Besides teaching, Frederic also worked on many university committees. He pushed for changes, like making Greek language no longer a required subject to enter the university. He also strongly supported allowing women to earn degrees from Cambridge. In 1897, he gave a famous speech that helped stop a plan to create a separate university just for women instead of letting them get Cambridge degrees.

Frederic wrote many important works during this time. His most famous book, The History of English Law Before the Time of Edward I, came out in 1895. He wrote it with his friend Sir Frederick Pollock, though Pollock only wrote one chapter. This book, often called "Pollock and Maitland," is considered the best book ever written on English legal history.

In 1902, Frederic was offered a very important history professor job at Cambridge, but he turned it down. In the same year, he became one of the first members of the British Academy, a group of top scholars.

Final Years and Legacy

Frederic's health started to get worse in the 1890s. He suffered from an illness, possibly tuberculosis or diabetes. After 1898, he spent winters in warmer places like the Canary Islands or Madeira. In December 1906, he traveled to the Canaries for the last time. He caught the flu, which turned into double pneumonia, and he passed away in Las Palmas. He was buried in the English Cemetery there.

After his death, Oxford University sent a special message of sadness to Cambridge. This was a very rare honor, showing how highly he was respected.

Even after he died, his students published books based on his lectures, including The Constitutional History of England and The Forms of Action at Common Law. In the latter book, he made a famous statement about old legal rules: "The forms of action we have buried but still they rule us from their graves." This means that even if old legal ways are gone, their influence can still be felt today.

Personal Life

Frederic married Florence Henrietta Fisher in 1886. They had two daughters, Ermengard and Fredegond. After Frederic's death, Florence married Sir Francis Darwin, who was the son of the famous scientist Charles Darwin.

Frederic was a moderate Liberal in his political views, meaning he generally supported the Liberal Party. However, he always tried to be fair and objective in his historical research.

How He Studied History

His Approach and Style

Frederic wrote in a clear, lively, and elegant way. His way of studying history was special because he used old documents very carefully and thoughtfully. He taught his students, and all future historians, to study the history of law by trying to understand the past as it was, not just by looking at it through today's needs.

His Big Discovery About Parliament

In 1889, Frederic was asked to look at and edit old requests made to King Edward I's parliament. He soon realized it was too big a job for one person. However, he found a parliament record from 1305 that no one had ever published before. He edited it and published it in 1893. This became the basis for what one historian called his "most explosive contribution to English history."

At that time, most people thought that early English parliaments were always meetings where different groups of people discussed government matters. This idea came from a historian named William Stubbs. But Frederic, after studying the 1305 record, suggested something different. He believed that early English parliaments were mainly like courts, meeting to hear people's complaints and solve problems. Even though people didn't fully realize how new this idea was at first, most historians now agree with Frederic's view.

Why English Law History Was Not Written

On October 13, 1888, when Frederic became a professor, he gave a lecture asking why no one had ever written a complete history of English law. He suggested two reasons: English law was very isolated (it didn't mix much with other countries' laws), and lawyers and historians thought about things differently.

How People Remember Him

Frederic was highly respected by people at the time. Lord Acton, another famous historian, called him the smartest historian in England.

Frederic's reputation has remained high since his death. Historians today still admire him greatly. Even when scholars point out small issues in his work, they always express deep respect for him. His work was very detailed and technical, and because the study of legal history became less popular, his ideas often remained the main way of thinking for a long time.

Honors and Tributes

During his life, Frederic received special honorary degrees from universities like Cambridge, Oxford, Glasgow, Moscow, and Krakow. He was a founding member of the British Academy in 1902. He was also an honorary member of other important academies in Germany. He was an honorary fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and an honorary "bencher" (a senior member) of Lincoln's Inn. Just before he died, he received a special medal from Harvard Law School.

After his death, the F. W. Maitland Memorial Fund was started at Cambridge in 1907 to support research in legal history. It still gives grants and scholarships today. In 2000, a special Maitland Legal History Room was created in the law library at Cambridge University. The Maitland Historical Society at Downing College, Cambridge, is also named after him.

At Oxford University, a Maitland Library was started in 1908 with 300 books from Frederic's own collection.

In 2001, a special stone honoring Frederic was placed in Poet's Corner at Westminster Abbey. He was the first professional historian to receive this honor. The stone has a quote from one of his books: "By slow degrees the thoughts of our forefathers their common thoughts about common things will have become thinkable once more." This means that by studying history, we can start to understand how people in the past thought about everyday life.

See also

• Otto von Gierke
• Herbert Fisher
• Henry de Bracton
• Paul Vinogradoff
• Social law
• Quia Emptores, Seisin and Cestui que

Works

His main books include:

• Pleas of the Crown for the County of Gloucester before the Abbot of Reading and his Fellows Justices Itinerant, Macmillan & Co., 1884.
• Justice and Police, Macmillan & Co., 1885.
• Bracton's Note-Book, Vol. 2, C. J. Clay & Sons, 1887 [reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2010]. ISBN: 978-1-108-01031-3)
• Memoranda de Parliamento, H.M. Stationery Office, 1893.
• History of English Law before the Time of Edward I, with Sir Frederick Pollock, Cambridge University Press, 1899 [1st Pub. 1895; new ed. 1898].
• Domesday Book and Beyond, Cambridge University Press, 1897.
• Township and Borough: Being the Ford Lectures Delivered in the University of Oxford in the October Term of 1897, Cambridge University Press, 1898.
• Roman Canon Law in the Church of England, Methuen & Co., 1898.
• English Law and the Renaissance: the Rede Lecture for 1901, Cambridge University Press, 1901.
• Charters of the Borough of Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1901 (reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2010. ISBN: 978-1-108-01043-6)
• Life and Letters of Leslie Stephen, Duckworth & Co., 1906.
• The Constitutional History of England, Cambridge University Press, 1909 [1st Pub. 1908].
• Equity. Also the Forms of Action at Common Law, Edited by A.H. Chaytor and W.J. Whittaker, Cambridge University Press, 1910.
• The Collected Papers of Frederic William Maitland, H.A.L. Fisher, ed., Vol. I, Cambridge University Press, 1911.
• The Collected Papers of Frederic William Maitland, H.A.L. Fisher, ed., Vol. II, Cambridge University Press, 1911.
• The Collected Papers of Frederic William Maitland, H.A.L. Fisher, ed., Vol. III, Cambridge University Press, 1911.
• A Sketch of English Legal History, with Francis G. Montague, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1915.
• The Letters of Frederic William Maitland, Selden Society, 1965.

Essays

• "The Relation of Punishment to Temptation," Mind, Vol. V, 1880.
• "The Criminal Liability of the Hundred," The Law Magazine and Review, Vol. VII, 1882.
• "Mr. Herbert Spencer's Theory of Society," Part II, Mind, Vol. VIII, 1883.
• "From the Old Law Courts to the New," The English Illustrated Magazine, Vol. I, 1883.
• "The Seisin of Chattels," The Law Quarterly Review, Vol. I, 1885.
• "The Deacon and the Jewess: or, Apostasy at Common Law," The Law Quarterly Review, Vol. II, 1886.
• "The Mystery of Seisin," The Law Quarterly Review, Vol. II, 1886.
• "The Suitors of the County Court," The English Historical Review, Vol. III, 1888.
• "The Beatitude of Seisin," Part II, The Law Quarterly Review, Vol. IV, 1888.
• "The Surnames of English Villages", The Archaeological Review, Vol. IV, No. 4, 1889.
• "The Introduction of English Law into Ireland," The English Historical Review, Vol. IV, 1889.
• "The Materials for English Legal History," Part II, Political Science Quarterly, Vol. IV, 1889.
• "The 'Praerogativa Regis'," The English Historical Review, Vol. VI, 1891.
• "Henry II and the Criminous Clerks," The English Historical Review, Vol. VII, 1892.
• "The 'Quatripartitus'," The Law Quarterly Review, Vol. VIII, 1892.
• "The History of Cambridgeshire Manor," The English Historical Review, Vol. IX, No. 35, July 1894.
• "The Origin of the Borough," The English Historical Review, Vol. IX, 1896.
• "Wyclif on English and Roman Law," The Law Quarterly Review, Vol. XII, 1896.
• "'Execrabilis' in the Common Pleas," The Law Quarterly Review, Vol. XII, 1896.
• "Canon Law in England," The English Historical Review, Vol. XII, 1897.
• "The Corporation Sole," The Law Quarterly Review, Vol. XVI, 1900, pp. 335–354
• "The Crown as Corporation," The Law Quarterly Review, Vol. XVII, 1901, pp. 131–146
• "Prologue to a History of English Law." In: Select Essays in Anglo-American Legal History, Vol. I. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1907.
• "Materials For the History of English Law." In: Select Essays in Anglo-American Legal History, Vol. II. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1908.
• "The History of the Register of Original Writs." In: Select Essays in Anglo-American Legal History, Vol. II. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1908.

Other

• "Glanville, Ranulf de." In: Dictionary of National Biography, Vol. XXI, 1890.
• "Court Rolls, Manorial Accounts and Extents." In: Dictionary of Political Economy, Vol. I, 1894.
• Essays on the Teaching of History, William Arthur Jobson Archbold, ed., with an introduction by F.W. Maitland, Cambridge University Press, 1901.
•  Maitland, Frederic William (1911). "Bracton, Henry de". Encyclopædia Britannica (Eleventh) 4. Cambridge University Press. 
•  Maitland, Frederic William (1911). "English Law". Encyclopædia Britannica (Eleventh) 9. Cambridge University Press. 600–607.