Frederic William Maitland

Frederic William Maitland (May 28, 1850 - December 19, 1906) was an English jurist and historian, generally regarded as the modern father of English legal history. He was initially a mathematician, and a friend of Karl Pearson. He was the son of John Gorham Maitland (1818–1863), and was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, being bracketed at the head of the moral sciences tripos of 1872, and winning a Whewell scholarship for internati... more

Frederic William Maitland (May 28, 1850 - December 19, 1906) was an English jurist and historian, generally regarded as the modern father of English legal history. He was initially a mathematician, and a friend of Karl Pearson. He was the son of John Gorham Maitland (1818–1863), and was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, being bracketed at the head of the moral sciences tripos of 1872, and winning a Whewell scholarship for international law. He was called to the bar (Lincoln's Inn) in 1876, and became a competent equity lawyer and conveyancer, but finally devoted himself to comparative jurisprudence and especially the history of English law. In 1884 he was appointed reader in English law at Cambridge, and in 1888 became Downing professor of the laws of England. Despite his generally poor health, his intellectual grasp and wide knowledge and research gradually made him famous as a jurist and historian. The Squire Law Library of the Faculty of Law at the University of... less