Sir William Stirling-Maxwell

Sir William Stirling-Maxwell, 9th Baronet KT, of Pollok FRSE DCL LLD (8 March 1818 – 15 January 1878), was a Scottish historical writer and art historian, politician, and virtuoso.

Until 1865 he was known as William Stirling, and several of his books were published under that name. He was Chancellor of the University of Glasgow from 1875 until his death and was also a Knight of the Thistle, considered the highest honour which can be conferred by the Crown on a Scotsman.

He was born at Kenmure, the son of Sir Archibald Stirling, Esq., of Keir and Cawder, and Elizabeth Maxwell, sister of Sir John Maxwell, 8th Baronet, and Harriet Maxwell (d. 1812) and daughter of Sir John Maxwell, 7th Baronet and Hannah or Anne Gardiner, daughter of Richard Gardiner, of Aldborough, Suffolk.

He was privately educated at Olney in Buckinghamshire then studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating with a BA degree in 1839 and proceeding to MA in 1843. He travelled in Spain and the Levant and contributed to Fraser's Magazine and the Examiner. In 1848 he published his pioneering Annals of the Artists of Spain. He succeeded to the Keir estates in 1847.

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