Maitland

Clan Crest: A lion sejant affrontée Gules, ducally crowned Proper, in his dexter paw a sword Proper hilted pommelled Or, in his sinister a fleur de lis Azure

Clan Motto: Consilio Et Animis (By wisdom and courage)

Historic Seat: Thirlestane Castle, Borders

Clan Chief: Ian Maitland, 18th Earl of Lauderdale

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Maitland Clan History

Maitland is a Norman name that was originally spelled Mautalent, Matulant, or Matalan. The Mautalents are from the Normandy village of Les Moitiers d'Allonne, near Carteret. The name was first found in Scotland by Thomas de Matulant, an ancestor of this noble family in Lauderdale. Sir Richard Matulant, Thomas's grandson, was one of the most powerful Lowland barons during the reign of King Alexander III of Scotland, owning the lands of Thirlestane, Blythe, Tollus, and Hedderwick.

Sir Richard Matulant fought alongside Robert the Bruce at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, but died in 1315. When the Clan Maitland fought at the Battle of Neville's Cross in 1346, two of his sons were killed. His son John, however, who was also the nephew of Sir Robert Keith, Great Marischal of Scotland, obtained a charter of the lands of Thirlestane and Tollus. On his return to Scotland, Sir Robert Maitland handed over control of Dunbar Castle to the Earl of Mar. On the liberation of England in 1424, his son Robert Maitland was one of the hostages for King James I of Scotland.

Chief William Maitland of Lethinton, a descendant of Robert, was killed while leading the Clan Maitland at the Battle of Flodden. Sir Richard Maitland, William's heir, was a man of extraordinary talent who was appointed a judge of the Court of Session and Keeper of the Privy Seal. He was also a well-known poet and historian. Another William Maitland served as Queen Mary's Secretary Lethington. He accompanied her north into the Scottish Highlands to face the formidable Earl of Huntly and his Clan Gordon. In 1562, William led the Clan Maitland at the Battle of Corrichie. William remained in Queen Mary's service until her surrender to the insurgent nobles at the Battle of Carberry Hill, but after that he openly joined them and participated in all their councils and proceedings. He also took part in the Battle of Langside.

Sir John Maitland was created 1st Lord of Thirlestane and married Lady Fleming. His only son, James, died without issue, leaving his estates to his brother, Sir John, first Baron Maitland. In 1616, his only son was made the first Earl of Lauderdale. He was a Lord of Session and the President of the Council.

Thirlestane Castle circa 1670

Chief John Maitland, 2nd Earl of, was a staunch Royalist who rose through the ranks to become Secretary of State, Lord High Commissioner, and Governor of Edinburgh Castle. He was also made 1st Duke of Lauderdale in 1674. Thirlestane Castle was built in Lauder by the 1st Earl of Guilford in 1674.The earldom passed to his son, John, in 1645, when the family's fortunes were at their peak. As a Scots commissioner, he attended the Westminster Assembly of Presbyterian divines in 1643. He fought alongside Charles at the Battle of Worcester in 1651, where he was captured and imprisoned for nine years.

Lauderdale rose to become the most powerful man in Scotland after the Restoration, effectively ruling as viceroy. He was created Duke of Lauderdale in 1672, but this title died with him. Charles, his brother, inherited the family earldom. The sixth Earl of Maitland was appointed General of the Mint. He backed the British government and opposed Jacobitism. He fought as a volunteer against the Jacobites at the Battle of Sheriffmuir in 1715.

Despite the fact that the Jacobite leader Prince Charles Edward Stuart stayed at Thirlstane Castle and his army camped in the parklands following the victory at the Battle of Prestonpans in 1745, the Maitland family were not noted Jacobites, and they avoided the forfeiture that ruined so many other families after the Forty-five. Lord Blantyre purchased the Lethington estate in the 18th century. Castle Lennoxglove was the name he gave to Thirlestane Castle.

Today, the Earls of Lauderdale are Scotland's Hereditary Saltire Banner Bearers.

Clan Maitland Places & People

Clan Maitland People

Lord Lethington, Sir Richard Maitland (1496-1586).

Scottish poet, father of Secretary of State to Mary I of Scotland, William Maitland of Lethington.

He was blind in his later years and spent his time writing a History of the House of Seaton and writing poems, such as On the New Year, On the Queene's Maryage, and so on. He held a variety of positions, primarily legal, but appears to have avoided the heated political battles of his time and to have been a genially satirical humorist.

Maitland, William

Maitland, William (1525-1573).

Scottish reformer and politician. He was the poet Richard Maitland's son. William was Mary I of Scotland's Secretary Lethington. He was active in various movements of the time, but he was not trusted by any of them. He supported the party of James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, the Queen regnant's illegitimate half-brother, against John Knox's extreme measures.

Maitland was an astute ambassador at the Court of Queen Elizabeth I of England. He assisted in the murder of David Rizzio, Queen Mary's private secretary and rumored lover, by her King consort Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, and his supporters. He did, however, regain her favor.

When Mary fled to England in 1567, Maitland joined the new government but worked to restore her to power by forming a party. However, he and Kirkcaldy of Grange were forced to surrender in Edinburgh in 1573. Maitland died later in Leith Prison.

1st Duke of Lauderdale John Maitland (1616–1682)

A Scottish politician and Cabal Ministry leader. Maitland began his public life as a zealous supporter of the Presbyterian cause, signed the Covenant, served as an elder in the Church of Scotland's General Assembly, and was sent to England as a Commissioner for the Covenant to attend the Westminster Assembly.

He was a member of the Privy Councils of England and Scotland in February 1644, and on November 20 he was one of the Commissioners appointed to persuade King Charles I to agree to the establishment of Presbyterianism. In 1645, he advised Charles to reject the Independents' proposals, and in 1647, he supported the king's surrender to the Scots. He later persuaded him to accept the Argyll faction's invitation to Scotland, accompanied him there in 1650 and on the expedition into England, and was taken prisoner at Worcester in 1651, remaining in confinement until March 1660.

He was a member of the Cabal Ministry, but he played little role in English affairs. He was created Duke of Lauderdale and Earl of March, and on June 3, he was made a Knight of the Garter. In 1672, he was also named Lord President of the Privy Council of Scotland, a position he held until 1681.

In 1673, following James' resignation as a result of the Test Act, he was appointed a Lord Commissioners of the Admiralty.On June 25, 1674, he was elevated to the Peerage of England as Earl of Guilford and Baron Petersham. He overcame all opposition to the king's financial demands in Scotland, which he visited immediately after his victory in the English Parliament. Another petition for his removal from the House of Commons in England was suppressed by the dissolution of parliament on May 26, 1679, and a renewed assault on him by the Scottish party and Shaftesbury's faction failed as well.

However, failing health forced Lauderdale to resign the position and power for which he had so long successfully fought. On November 29, his vote for Lord Stafford's execution is said to have enraged James. He was deposed of all his positions in 1682, and he died in August.

8th Earl of Lauderdale, James Maitland (1759-1839)

Politician and author from Scotland. He was a member of parliament from 1780 to 1789, when he succeeded his father as earl of Devonshire. He actively participated in debate in the House of Commons, and in the House of Lords, where he was a representative peer for Scotland, he was a prominent opponent of Pitt's and the English government's policy toward France, a country he had visited in 1792 with John Moore. He was created a peer of the United Kingdom in 1806 as Baron Lauderdale of Thirlestane, and he served briefly as keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland. The earl, who had helped to found the Society of the Friends of the People in 1792, had somewhat modified his political views by this time; this process was continued, and after serving as the leader of the Whigs in Scotland, Lauderdale became a Tory and voted against the Reform Bill of 1832.

He wrote an Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Public Wealth (1804 and 1819), which was translated into French and Italian and sparked a debate between the author and Lord Brougham; The Depreciation of Great Britain's Paper Currency Proved (1812); and other works of a similar nature.

Maitland Tartans

Tartan Maitland

The tartans listed below are appropriate for this name.

Lauder

Maitland Crest & Coats of Arms

Clan Maitland Crest

Crest: A lion sejant affrontée Gules, ducally crowned Proper, holding a sword Proper hilted and pommelled in his dexter paw. Or, a fleur de lis Azure in his sinister.

Coats of Arms of Maitland

A word about Coats of Arms:

A coat of arms is granted to an individual under Scottish heraldic law (with the exception of civic or corporate arms). A 'family coat of arms' does not exist. With the exceptions noted above, the arms depicted below are personal arms. Only the person who has been granted these weapons has the right to use them.

Clan Maitland septs include the following names:

The Lauderdale, Maitland, Maltland, Mateland, Matelande, Matheland, Matilland, Matillande, Matlain, Matland, Mauteland, Mautelande, Mautelent, Mautlent, Metellan, Metlan, and Mettlin families are all descended from the Maitlands.

Maitlen and Maizlan are also considered Maitland variants.

Medlins with Scottish ancestors are almost certainly Maitlands, but Medlins with English ancestors may be from a different family.

Mautalents is the family's original and earliest name, and they come from the villages of Les Moitiers d'Allonne and Carteret in Normandy's Cotentin Peninsula in northern France. In the early Middle Ages, Mautalents also had fiefs in Jersey and Guernsey.

Even today, members of the family live in Normandy.

Mautalens were people who lived in the Bearn region of southern France, near Pau in the Pyrenees, and used the name Mautalent until the 18th century. They probably migrated from Normandy to Bearn around 1300. They are first mentioned as Aramonet de Mautalent, an official conducting the Census of 1385 in Bearn, and have lived there ever since.

Lauderdale first appears in records as a family name in Scotland in 1737, with the baptism of Jean Lauderdale, the daughter of James Lauderdale, at Beith in Ayr.

Lauderdales in the United States are primarily descended from James Maitland, who was born in Galloway, Scotland, and moved to Ulster before settling in Pennsylvania in the American colonies in 1714. He eventually changed his name to Lauderdale and founded a prominent American pioneer family of that name. The family has direct ties to Fort Lauderdale and a number of American counties.