Frederic William Maitland, (born May 28, 1850, London, England—died December 19, 1906, Las Palmas, Canary Islands, Spain), English jurist and historian of English law whose special contribution was to bring historical and comparative methods to bear on the study of English institutions.
Educated at Eton and at Trinity College, Cambridge, Maitland studied law at Lincoln’s Inn, London, and was called to the bar in 1876. After practicing in London, he became reader in English law (1884) and professor (1888) at Cambridge. His best-known work, The History of English Law Before the Time of Edward I, 2 vol. (1895), was written with Sir Frederick Pollock; it became a classic and was widely cited simply as “Pollock and Maitland.” Among Maitland’s other writings are Bracton’s Note-Book (1887), an edition of the collected cases of the noted 13th-century English jurist Henry de Bracton; Roman Canon Law in the Church of England (1898); and English Law and the Renaissance (1901). He also edited several volumes published by the Selden Society for the study of English law, which he and others founded in 1887. His work helped to trace the influence of Roman law in English legal history.