Samuel Maverick - Early Years

Early Years

Samuel Augustus Maverick was the oldest son of Charleston businessman Samuel Maverick and his wife Elizabeth Anderson. His Maverick ancestors had arrived in the New World in 1624 before emigrating to Barbados and later to Charleston. After his paternal grandfather died, in 1793 his grandmother, Lydia, married American Revolutionary War general Robert Anderson. In October 1802, his father married Anderson's daughter Elizabeth, and nine months later, on July 23, 1803 Maverick was born at his family's summer home in Pendleton District, South Carolina. To his family, Maverick was known as "Gus".

Over the next four years the family lived in Charleston, and his mother bore four more children, one, of whom, Robert, lived less than a day. In September 1809, his sister Ann Caroline died of yellow fever. His father, having watched his ten siblings succumb to the same disease as children, moved his family permanently to Pendleton. For the rest of his life, the elder Samuel Maverick would caution his children to always live in a healthful climate so that they would not succumb to the same disease.

While in Charleston, the elder Samuel had operated a successful business importing goods from England, Holland, Germany, Cuba, and France. After moving to Pendleton he gradually withdrew from his Charleston-based ventures and began to operate a small business in Pendleton. In 1814, the Maverick family expanded with the birth of another daughter, Lydia. Four years later, when Maverick was fifteen, his mother died.

It is likely that Maverick's early education took place at home. In early 1822, he traveled to Ripton, Connecticut to study under a tutor. In September of that year he was admitted to Yale University as a sophomore. At Yale, he was known as "Sam". After graduating in 1825 Maverick returned to Pendleton and apprenticed under his father to learn business affairs. For the next year, his father deeded him land, and on February 4, 1826 he made his first land purchase, acquiring half a lot in Pendleton.

In 1828, Maverick traveled to Winchester, Virginia to study law under Henry St. George Tucker, Sr.. He became licensed to practice law in Virginia on March 26, 1829 and several weeks later received his license to practice in South Carolina. He soon established a law practice in Pendleton. The following year he ran for a seat in the South Carolina legislature, advocating for a peaceful resolution to the tariff problem and against nullification. This was not a popular strategy, and Maverick placed 9th out of 13 candidates, gathering 1,628 votes.

Maverick relocated to Georgia in early 1833, where he unsuccessfully ran a gold mine. He returned home at the end of the year. On January 24, 1834, he left Pendleton for Lauderdale County, Alabama, taking 25 of his father's slaves to operate a plantation his father had given him. They arrived in March. Later that year his widowed sister, Mary Elizabeth, moved to Alabama to live near him with her three children. Maverick did not enjoy running a plantation, primarily because he did not like supervising slaves. On March 16, 1835, he left Alabama to go to Texas.