John Maitland, 1st Lord Thirlestane

John Maitland, 1st Lord Maitland of Thirlestane, (1537 – 3 October 1595), of Lethington, Knight (1581), was Lord Chancellor of Scotland.

He was the second son of Sir Richard Maitland of Thirlestane, Berwickshire, and Lethington, Haddingtonshire, who settled the lands of Thirlestane upon him, and he was sent abroad for his education.

Upon John Maitland's return, through the influence of his brother, William Maitland, he received the offer of the position of Commendator of Kelso Abbey, which he shortly afterwards exchanged with Francis Stewart, later Earl of Bothwell, for the Priory of Coldingham. This transaction was ratified by Mary, Queen of Scots on 20 April 1567.

Upon the death of his father, he was appointed Keeper of the Privy Seal of Scotland, on 20 April 1567. He also supported Regent Murray, and sat in his parliaments in December 1567 and August 1568. On 2 June 1568 he was created a Senator of the College of Justice as an Ordinary Lord on the spiritual side. He retained the rich endowment of Coldingham until 1570.

Following the Regent Murray's assassination, Maitland joined the Lords who met on the Queen's behalf at Linlithgow, and shared in the dangers of the civil war which ensued. At the end of 1570 he was denounced a rebel by the King's party, with his brothers William and Thomas, and they were all forfeited in the parliament which met in the Canongate, the so-called 'cropped parliament'.

John Maitland was deprived of all his offices and benefices, and took refuge in Edinburgh Castle. Upon its surrender on 29 May 1573 he was sent as a prisoner to Tantallon Castle in Haddingtonshire. After nine months confinement there he was removed to Hugh, Lord Somerville's house of Cowthallie, under house-arrest with bail at £10,000 Scots. In 1574/5 a Letter of Rehabilitation in his favour, as "Commendator of Coldingham", passed the Great Seal.

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