[3] After his paternal grandfather died, in 1793 his grandmother, Lydia Maverick (née Turpin), married American Revolutionary War general Robert Anderson.

[4] In October 1802, his father married Anderson's daughter Elizabeth,[5] and nine months later, on July 23, 1803, Maverick was born at his family's summer home in Pendleton District, South Carolina.

[5] For the rest of his life, the elder Samuel Maverick cautioned his children to always live in a healthful climate so that they would not fall victim to a tropical disease.

[6] While in Charleston, the elder Samuel had operated a successful business importing goods from England, the Netherlands, Germany, Cuba, and France.

[19] His interest in Texas extended back almost ten years, as in 1826 he noted in his journal that Stephen F. Austin had received a land grant and that Mexico was quickly being settled.

[22] After recovering from a bout of malaria, Maverick journeyed to the drier climate of San Antonio, which was surrounded by large swaths of unclaimed land.

[24] General Martín Perfecto de Cos, the commander of the Mexican army in San Antonio, was distrustful of the Anglos in the area, and on October 16 he placed a guard at the door of the home where Maverick was staying.

[28] During this time, Maverick and his fellow prisoners sent missives to the Texans with information about the occurrences within the city, with many of them going to his childhood friend Thomas Jefferson Rusk.

The garrison was prohibited from voting in the election for San Antonio delegates to the Texas independence convention because they were considered transients.

[34] Although Badgett left for the convention, Maverick remained at the siege of the Alamo until March 2, the same day the other delegates were signing the Texas Declaration of Independence.

[39] At the beginning of 1837, he sold his Alabama plantation and with his wife moved to New Orleans, both to receive faster news from Texas and to supervise the agent who was conducting mercantile activities on his behalf.

[42] On February 4, they reached the home of George Sutherland in Jackson County,[43] and the bulk of the traveling party remained as boarders there for the next four months.

[44] Maverick continued to San Antonio and began buying headright certificates using the money he received from the sale of his lands in Alabama.

[46] Maverick's family joined him in San Antonio on June 15, 1838, where they rented rooms in the same home as Mary's brother William.

[52] For the next several years, Maverick spent a great deal of time away from home, either surveying frontier lands or traveling to New Orleans on business.

When an attack was noticed, the church bell would ring, and Maverick and his fellow militia members would have to be ready to leave within 15 minutes.

[54] Maverick participated in the Council House Fight on March 19, 1840, as the citizens of San Antonio attempted to capture or kill a band of Indians who had reneged on previous agreements to return captives.

Before he could escort the goods to San Antonio, a band of Indians led by Buffalo Hump raided Linnville and destroyed all of the supplies.

[60] Maverick and the other men in the party joined Texan army troops to retake San Antonio, but the Vásquez Expedition retreated without a fight, although they caused extensive damage to the homes of the Texas citizens.

[61] Maverick moved his family to La Grange after several Indian scares in Gonzales, and on April 30 he left for Alabama to retrieve his wife's younger sister, who had been living alone since her mother died the year before.

[61] Maverick returned to Texas in July,[62] and the following month he again left his family, this time to go to San Antonio to argue a case before the district court.

Two bands of Texans tried to rescue them; neither succeeded, and the second, which included Mary's uncle John Bradley, was also captured and joined Maverick's group in their march.

Although the journey was difficult and the men were often forced to sleep in manure-filled sheep pens, in his journal Maverick wrote that he "saw and experienced a thousand new thrills.

[66] Despite his imprisonment and the fact that his family now lived in Fayette County, Maverick was elected by the people of San Antonio to represent them in the Seventh Texas Congress.

Maverick responded, "I cannot persuade myself that such an annexation, on any terms, would be advantageous to Texas, and I therefore cannot say so, for I regard a lie as a crime, and one which I cannot commit even to secure my release.

"[68] The Mexican government finally released him on March 30, the same day his wife gave birth to a daughter, whom she named Augusta.

As part of the 8th Texas Congress, Maverick and his colleagues met at Washington-on-the-Brazos rather than at the state capital, Austin, which was vulnerable to Indian and Mexican raids.

[73] Mary Maverick and their children were often ill, and in November 1844 the family sold their land along the Colorado River and moved to Decrow's Point, across from Port Cavallo on Matagorda Bay.

As a result, the word maverick, slang for someone who exhibits a streak of stubborn independence, also entered the English lexicon as a term for an unbranded range animal.

George recounted that, in 1845, his father, whose interest was in real estate, acquired some 400 head of cattle that he did not want from a neighbor as payment of a $1,200 (~$37,334 in 2023) debt.