Her father settled as a merchant in Liverpool when she was five years old, and she was educated at home there in a Presbyterian atmosphere.

[1] Maitland was keenly interested in the higher education of women and left Liverpool in 1889 to succeed Madeleine Shaw Lefevre as Principal of Somerville Hall, Oxford.

A strong liberal in politics, and a broad-minded churchwoman (in spite of her Presbyterian training), she preserved the non-denominational atmosphere at the college.

[1] To Maitland, the college owes the erection of its library of 15,000 volumes, which was opened in 1894 by John Morley.

At Morley's suggestion, Helen Taylor presented Somerville with the library of John Stuart Mill, free of conditions.