[1] Maury was born near Franklin, Tennessee, on the plantation of his father, Abraham "Abram" Maury, Jr. After his preparatory studies, he became the editor of a newspaper in St. Louis, Missouri, at the age of sixteen.
He next entered the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, in 1820.
He left the following year to pursue the study of law and edit a newspaper in Nashville, Tennessee.
Elected as a White supporter to the Twenty-fourth Congress by Tennessee's eighth district and re-elected as a Whig to the Twenty-fifth Congress, Maury served from March 4, 1835, to March 3, 1839.
Maury resumed the practice of law in Williamson County, Tennessee and also engaged in literary pursuits and lecturing.