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

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.

[1] He was privately educated at Olney in Buckinghamshire[2] then studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating with a BA degree in 1839 and proceeding to MA in 1843.

He died on holiday in Venice on 15 January 1878 but his body was returned to Britain and he is buried in the Lecropt Churchyard near Stirling.

[7] 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: In March 1877, Stirling Maxwell married secondly noted author and society figure Caroline Norton, a granddaughter of the famous Irish playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan.