Marie Maitland
Marie Maitland was a Scottish writer and poet, a member of the Maitland family of Lethington and Thirlestane Castle, and later Lady Haltoun. Her first name is sometimes written as "Mary".
Early life
Marie Maitland was a daughter of Sir Richard Maitland of Lethington and Thirlestane and Mariotta Cranstoun, the daughter of Sir Thomas Cranstoun of Corsbie, Berwickshire, Scotland.Marie had three brothers and three sisters. Her eldest brother, William Maitland of Lethington, was Secretary to Mary, Queen of Scots. Her second eldest brother was John Maitland, 1st Lord Maitland of Thirlestane, Lord Chancellor of Scotland.
Maitland manuscripts
The Maitland folio and quarto manuscripts are anthologies of poems compiled and authored by the Maitland family. The manuscripts are written in Italic and Secretary hands. John Pinkerton was the first to suggest that Marie Maitland was the scribe. Her name appears twice on the titlepage of the quarto manuscript. Some poems within the Maitland Quarto are written by her while others name her or are dedicated to her. These lines, in the Scots language, come from the end of Poem 49, which was almost certainly written by Marie.And thoucht adversitie ws vex
Yit be our freindschip salbe sein
Thair is mair constancie in our sex
Than evir amang men hes bein
And though adversity us vex
Yet by our freindship shall be seen
There is more constancy in our sex
Than ever among men has been.
Pamela M. King has suggested that, as one of Sir Richard's younger children, Marie could still have been living at Lethington Castle, the family home, when it was confiscated in 1571 following her brother William's arraignment for treason, and that the poem Lethington, which she attributes to her, was a response to that experience. Joanna Martin has identified Lethington as being one of the earliest of the 'country house' genre of poems.
In February 2021, in a long-form blog for the National Library of Scotland published for LGBT+ history month, Scottish historian Ashley Douglas wrote about poem 49 as a lesbian love poem in Marie’s own hand, and first described her as a ‘sixteenth-century Scottish Sappho'. Since then, Douglas has worked with a range of organisations and used many platforms to continue to share the significance of Marie Maitland and her poetry as widely as possible. In particular, Douglas worked with educational charity to develop secondary school lesson plans about the poetry of Marie Maitland and the Scotland in which she lived and wrote, which formed part of the world-first launch of LGBT . They also commissioned an imagined modern portrait of Marie Maitland, which is currently on display at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.
A forthcoming book by historian Ashley Douglas draws on a vast range of newly unearthed primary historical records to tell the fascinating story of Marie Maitland and her manuscript, in particular its lesbian love poetry, in full, for the very first time. Entitled "WITH MY OWN HAND: The secret life of Marie Maitland, Scotland’s sixteenth-century Sappho" the book is being published by Headline Press on 16 July 2026.
Poetry
She was the transcriber of the Maitland Quarto manuscript as well as a poet in her own right. The Maitland Quarto contains explicitly lesbian poetry penned by Marie, which is among the earliest Sapphic poetry in any language in Europe since the time of Sappho herself. The Maitland Quarto is a significant primary source of Scottish and world LGBT history.Together with the Maitland Folio manuscript, the Maitland Quarto is one of the Maitland Manuscripts, which are important sources for 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.
Family and literary relationships
Marie was a property owner before her marriage, as the principal "tackswoman" of the teind sheaves of Bolton parish. A tack was a kind of lease, and Marie was entitled to an income from the harvest of farms in the parish. On 30 July 1582, she made over rights to the harvest at Marwyngstoun to Richard Cranstoun, who would pay her 10 merks annually for the next 19 years.In 1586, Marie married Alexander Lauder of Haltoun. The contract was made in September. Alexander Lauder was Sheriff Principal of Edinburgh, and was buried in Holyrood Abbey 14 November 1627. Marie would not have been known as "Marie Lauder" after her marriage, because women in early modern Scotland did not usually adopt their husband's surnames.
Hatton or Haltoun is an estate near Kirkliston in Ratho parish. Alexander Lauder was a son of William Lauder and Jean Cockburn. William Lauder was one of several lairds involved in the murder of David Rizzio, and he hosted the Earl of Bothwell at Hatton on 23 April 1567, the day before he abducted Mary, Queen of Scots. The poet Alexander Scott, who wrote Ane New Yeir Gift to Quene Mary was a connection by marriage of the Lauders.
Jean Cockburn's aunt or great aunt, Elizabeth Douglas, Lady Temple Hall, seems also to have been a poet, working in the same circle of East Lothian poets, but it has also been suggested that this poetic identity was Elizabeth Douglas, Countess of Erroll.
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.
Marie Maitland, Lady Haltoun's children included:
- Alexander Lauder younger of Hatton, who married Susannah Cunningham, a daughter of the Earl of Glencairn, and sister of the writer Margaret Cunningham.
- Richard Lauder of Hatton, his younger daughter Elizabeth married Charles Maitland, later Earl of Lauderdale.
- Jane Lauder, who married Alexander Hay of Smithfield, Bryce Sempill of Boghauche and Cathcart.
- Helen Lauder, who married Thomas Young of Leny, a lawyer.
George Lauder, a son of Alexander Lauder and Annabella Bellenden, was a soldier. He was a friend of William Drummond of Hawthornden and gained a considerable reputation as a poet.