Frederic William Maitland

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Frederic William Maitland

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition | 2008 | The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright 2008 Columbia University Press. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

Frederic William Maitland , 1850-1906, English legal historian, educated at Cambridge. A thorough scholar, he founded the Selden Society for the publication of early English documents and edited many texts himself, such as Henry de Bracton's notebook and the Year Books of Edward II (completed by G. J. Turner, 4 vol., 1903-7). The History of English Law before the Time of Edward I (1895), which he wrote with Sir Frederick Pollock, is a brilliant work, still standard. Other studies by him, notable for their prose style as well as sound elucidation of the ideas and attitudes embodied in legal institutions, are Domesday Book and Beyond (1897, repr. 1966), a model for the use of a source; English Law and the Renaissance (1901); Equity (ed. by A. H. Chaytor and W. J. Whittaker, 1909; rev. ed. by John Brunyate, 1937); and The Forms of Action at Common Law (ed. by A. H. Chaytor and W. J. Whittaker, 1909 and 1937). His Constitutional History of England (ed. by H. A. L. Fisher, 1908) is a valuable series of lectures.

Bibliography: See his collected papers (ed. by H. A. L. Fisher, 3 vol., 1911) and Selected Essays (ed. by H. D. Hazeltine, G. T. Lapsley, and P. H. Winfield, 1936, repr. 1968); biography by G. R. Elton (1985).

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Maitland, Frederick William

A Dictionary of British History | 2004 | | © A Dictionary of British History 2004, originally published by Oxford University Press 2004. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

Maitland, Frederick William (1850–1906). Historian. By common consent, Maitland was one of the great British historians, with remarkable influence after a comparatively short academic career. Educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, he began as a lawyer but switched to history. His most famous book was a History of English Law (1895) of which his co‐author, Sir Frederick Pollock, wrote only a fraction.

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Maitland, Frederick William

The Oxford Companion to British History | 2002 | | © The Oxford Companion to British History 2002, originally published by Oxford University Press 2002. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

Maitland, Frederick William (1850–1906). Historian. By common consent, Maitland was one of the great British historians, with remarkable influence after a comparatively short academic career. Educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, he began as a lawyer but switched to history. He performed a vast amount of editorial work on medieval records, most of it for the Selden Society, but his most famous book was a History of English Law (1895) of which his co-author, Sir Frederick Pollock, wrote only a fraction. Maitland was elected professor of the laws of England at Cambridge in 1898, which he held at Downing. ‘A model of critical method, a model of style and a model of intellectual temper,’ was A. L. Smith's comment.

J. A. Cannon

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JOHN CANNON. "Maitland, Frederick William." The Oxford Companion to British History. Oxford University Press. 2002. Encyclopedia.com. (November 25, 2009). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O110-MaitlandFrederickWilliam.html

JOHN CANNON. "Maitland, Frederick William." The Oxford Companion to British History. Oxford University Press. 2002. Retrieved November 25, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O110-MaitlandFrederickWilliam.html

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