James Maury

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The Reverend James Maury (1718-1769) was a prominent Virginia educator and Anglican minister during the American Colonial period. He was a figure in the notable lawsuit that became known as "The Parson's Cause" in 1763, in which the young attorney Patrick Henry argued that the colony had the right to establish its own method of payment to clergy (which had been vetoed by the Crown).

Born in Dublin to French Huguenots, Maury came to the Virginia colony as an infant with his parents. He became educated and attended The College of William and Mary. He went to England to become ordained as an Anglican minister in 1741. He established his own classical school for boys, where he taught the young Thomas Jefferson among others.

In February 1742, Maury went to England and was ordained as an Anglican minister of the established Church of England. Returning to Virginia, Maury became minister for one year of a parish in King William County and then served for 18 years in Louisa County at Fredericksville Parish.[1] He was highly regarded for his piety and learning. Maury was minister of his parish until his death on June 9, 1769.

Early life and education

He was the son of Matthew Maury, a French Huguenot, who was born in Castel Mauron, in Gascony, and his wife, Mary Anne Fontaine, daughter of Rev. James Fontaine and Anne Elizabeth Boursiquot. James Maury was born April 8, 1718, in Dublin.[2] Shortly after his birth, the family emigrated to the Virginia colony,[3] where hundreds of Huguenot refugees had settled above the falls of the James River in the early 1700s.

Maury was tutored and attended The College of William and Mary. After ordination as an Anglican minister, on July 31, 1742 he was appointed usher of its grammar school.

Career

Educator

Maury had a private school where he taught the classics, manners and morals, mathematics, literature, history and geography, and also Latin and Greek. Most of Reverend Maury's pupils boarded at his school. Thomas Jefferson became one of his pupils for two years after the death of his father Peter Jefferson in 1757.[4]

Maury's school is memorialized in a historical marker located near Gordonsville in Albemarle County, Virginia.[5]

Minister

Ordained in 1742, Maury first served for a year in King William County, then was called to Lousia County and Fredericksville Parish.

In 1749 he became enthusiastic about expeditions to the west and, together with Peter Jefferson, Dr. Thomas Walker, and Joshua Fry, founded the Land Company. They planned an expedition but it was forestalled by the outbreak of hostilities between England and France in the Seven Years War in 1753 (called the French and Indian War in the colonies).

Family

Maury married Mary Walker (born November 22, 1724, in King and Queen County, Virginia), on November 11, 1743, in Louisa County, Virginia. Mary was the daughter of Anne and Captain James Walker.[6]

Their children were:

  • Matthew Maury, b. September 10, 1744, d. May 6, 1801
  • "Consul" James Maury, b. February 3, 1746, d. February 23, 1840
  • Leonard Maury, b. June 3 1747, d. 1747
  • Anne Maury, b. November 16 1748, d. January 8, 1822
  • Mary Maury, b. September 17 1750
  • Walker Maury, b. July 21, 1752, d. October 11, 1788
  • Catherine Maury, b. July 15, 1754, d. July 26, 1786
  • Elizabeth Maury, b. April 1 1756
  • Abram Maury, b. April 28 1758
  • Fontaine Maury, b. February 3, 1761, d. February 1824
  • Benjamin Maury, b. January 17, 1763
  • Richard Maury, b. May 19, 1766, d. January 31, 1843
  • Matilda Hite Maury, b. October 28, 1769, d. November 7, 1821[6]

The Parson's Cause

Maury opposed the colony's passage of the Two Penny Act of 1757, which proposed to pay clergy a set amount in cash rather than in tobacco, as had been the rule. The Crown had vetoed the colony's act and asserted clergy must be paid in tobacco. Maury sued the parish collectors, who gathered required payment for clergy, for the full amount of his salary in tobacco. This suit, known in American history as the Parson's Cause, was an important legal and political dispute in the Colony of Virginia as it involved the question of taxation, and whether it was controlled by the colony or the Crown. It is considered an important event contributing to the American Revolution.[7]

The case was defended by Peter Lyons, afterward president of the Virginia Supreme Court, and opposed by Patrick Henry. He denounced the interference of the King in setting aside the colony's law as treason to the people of Virginia. Maury won the lawsuit but the jury awarded him only one penny in damages.[8] He continued to hold the esteem of the people of Virginia. Afterward Maury wrote a letter discussing the case, which became known as "The Parson's Opinion of 'The Parson's Cause'".

Maury and Henry had some animosity for a time as a result of the case. Later Martha Henry, the attorney's eldest daughter, married John Fontaine, a near relation of Maury.[9] They managed the Henry plantation of Leatherwood after her father was elected a second time as governor of Virginia.

Descendants

Maury's eldest son, James Maury (1746–1840), was appointed as the United States' first overseas consul. Thomas Jefferson petitioned then US President George Washington for his appointment. Maury became America's first consul to Liverpool, England, a position which he held from 1790 to 1829. He resigned due to Jacksonian politics.

During this overseas appointment, both he and his nephew Matthew Fontaine Maury (born in 1806) had opportunities to discuss and study the natural philosophy lectures (mainly physics) of Thomas Young, published in 1807. "Consul" James Maury's portrait still hangs today in Liverpool Town Hall.

Notes

  1. ↑ Nelson, John K. (2001). A Blessed Company: Parishes, Parsons, and Parishioners in Anglican Virginia, 1690-1776, p. 99. The University of North Carolina Press.
  2. ↑ Fontaine, John; ed. by Alexander, Edward Porter (1972). The Journal of John Fontaine: An Irish Huguenot Son in Spain and Virginia, 1710-1719, p. 130. The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
  3. ↑ Fontaine, James, & Maury, Ann (1852). Memoirs of a Huguenot Family, p. 240. G. P. Putnam's Sons
  4. ↑ Brodie, Fawn M. (1974). Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History, p. 54. W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
  5. ↑ Salmon, John S.; Peters, Margaret T.; Virginia Department of Historic Resources (1994). A Guidebook to Virginia's Historical Markers, p. 64. University of Virginia Press.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Pecquet du Bellet, Louise (1907). Some Prominent Virginia Families, Vol. IV, pp. 390-91. J. P. Bell Company.
  7. ↑ Campbell, Charles (1860). History of the Colony and Ancient Dominion of Virginia, p. 518. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott and Co.
  8. ↑ Wiley, Edwin, & Rines, Irving E. eds. (1916). Lectures on the Growth and Development of the United States, Vol. 2, p. 130. New York: American Educational Alliance
  9. ↑ Saunders, James Edmonds (1899) (2001 reprint). Early Settlers of Alabama, p. 298. Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc.

References

External links

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