Frederic William Maitland (1850-1906), son of John Gorham Maitland, was educated at Eton and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he studied moral sciences (B.A., 1873; M.A., 1876). He was called to the bar in 1876, and became reader in English law at Cambridge in 1884, and Downing professor, 1888-1906. Maitland was a founder of the Selden Society, which sought to encourage the study of the history of English law, and served as its literary director in 1895. He became Ford's lecturer at Oxford in 1897, and Rede lecturer at Cambridge in 1901. He was also an honorary fellow of Trinity College. The F.W. Maitland Memorial Fund was founded at Cambridge in 1907 to promote education and research in the history of law, legal language and legal bodies.
From the guide to the Correspondence relating to the F.W. Maitland Memorial Fund, 1907-1909, (Cambridge University Library, Department of Manuscripts and University Archives)
