Virginia. Ordained ministry Ordained in 1742, The Reverend Maury first served for a year in King William County, then was called to Louisa County and Fredericksville Parish. Loyal Land Company In 1749 Maury became enthusiastic about expeditions to the west and, together with Peter Jefferson, Dr. Thomas Walker, Joshua Fry, and others founded the Loyal Company of Virginia. They planned an expedition up the Missouri River to be led by Walker, 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). In a 1756 letter Maury described the proposed expedition, which foreshadowed the Lewis and Clark Expedition: "Some persons were to be sent in search of that river Missouri, if that be the right name of it, in order to discover whether it had any communication with the Pacific Ocean; they were to follow the river if they found it, and exact reports of the country they passed through, the distances they traveled, what worth of navigation those rivers and lakes afforded, etc." Family Rev. James 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. 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 father of Matthew Fontaine Maury Matilda Hite Maury, b. October 28, 1769, d. November 7, 1821 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