Frederick W. Maitland

A memorial stone for historian F.W. Maitland was unveiled in the south transept of Westminster Abbey on 4th January 2001. The stone was cut by Richard Kindersley and the inscription in a circular design is taken from the conclusion of Maitland's Domesday Book and beyond. He was born in London on 28th May 1850, the son of John and Emma (Daniell). Educated at Eton and Cambridge he became a lawyer and edited the Law Quarterly Review. In 1886 he married Florence Fisher and had two daughters. His publications include the History of English Law. He died on 20th December 1906 and is buried in the English cemetery at Las Palmas on the Canary Islands. At his death it was said that "English historical learning lost its greatest living ornament" and academic historians today look on him as their "patron saint". The inscription reads:

F W Maitland 1850-1906 Historian

By slow degrees the thoughts of our forefathers their common thoughts about common things will have become thinkable once more