Sir William Stirling-Maxwell, 9th Baronet, KT, FRSE (8 March 1818 – 15 January 1878) was a Scottish historical writer, art historian and politician.
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 that can be conferred by the Crown on a Scotsman.
Stirling was born at Kenmure, the son of Archibald Stirling, Esq., of Keir and Cawder, and Elizabeth Maxwell, sister of Sir John Maxwell, 8th Baronet, and Harriet Maxwell (died 1812) and daughter of Sir John Maxwell, 7th Baronet and Hannah or Anne Gardiner, daughter of Richard Gardiner, of Aldborough, Suffolk. Stirling's father owned a number of slave plantations in Jamaica and fathered at least six illegitimate children with women of colour, including Edward Stirling who became one of the first settlers in South Australia.[1]
In 1849 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh his proposer being John Russell. He served as the Society's vice president from 1871 to 1875.[4]
He married firstly Lady Anna Maria Leslie-Melville (died 8 December 1874), daughter of David Leslie-Melville, 8th Earl of Leven and Elizabeth Anne Campbell, and had, at least:
Brigadier GeneralArchibald Stirling, of Keir (14 September 1867 – 18 February 1931), married on 14 April 1910 The Hon. Margaret Mary Fraser (25 June 1881 – 4 August 1972), daughter of Simon Fraser, 13th Lord Lovat and Alice Mary Weld-Blundell, and had six children:
William Joseph Stirling, of Keir (9 May 1911 – 1 January 1983), married on 22 November 1940 Susan Rachel Bligh (12 August 1916 – 1983), daughter of The Hon. Noel Gervase Bligh and Mary Frost and granddaughter of Ivo Bligh, 8th Earl of Darnley and Florence Rose Morphy, and had five children:
Magdalen Stirling (born 25 November 1945), married in 1969 Patrick Petit, and had issue
John Alexander Stirling (born 26 February 1948), married first in 1971 Susan Black, without issue, and married secondly in 1985 Olivia Louise Waller, and had three children:
Joseph Patrick William Stirling (born 1985)
Christabel Georgia Stirling (born 1987)
Hugh David Archibald Stirling (born 1993)
Peter John Stirling (1 February 1913 – 15 April 1994), married on 6 February 1963 Mahin Feli
Hugh Joseph Stirling (4 May 1917 – k.i.a., World War II, Libya, 22 April 1941), unmarried and without issue
Margaret Elizabeth Mary Stirling (4 July 1914 – 9 February 1997), married on 26 June 1940 Simon Ramsay, 16th Earl of Dalhousie (17 October 1914 – 1999)
Irene Katharine Teresa Stirling (9 March 1919 – February 1992)
In March 1877, Stirling Maxwell married secondly noted author and society figure Caroline Norton, a granddaughter of the famous Irish playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan. She died three months later.
An Essay towards a Collection of Books Relating to Proverbs, Emblems, Apophthegms, Epitaphs, and Ana (privately printed, 1860)
Ut Pictura Poesis, or An Attempt to Explain in Verse The Emblemata Horatiana of Otho Vaenius (privately printed, 1875), contributed the Bibliography of van Veen[8]
