The Tale of a Black Sheep is the never-before-published memoir of Stephen Price Maury  (1850-1941), the self-proclaimed "black sheep" of the distinguished Maury family of Virginia.

His distinguished ancestry by his birth into the respected Maury family and his kinship with many of the Virginia gentry, such as the Walkers, Lewises, Meriwethers, and other notable and influential old families, gave him access to a high level of the prevailing social structure. However, he chose a different path for his life. By his own admission, his unconventional lifestyle, adventures, and mis-adventures all made him the “black sheep” of his family. His story may, therefore, be of great interest to some of his descendants, as well as others, who might wish to know more about this unorthodox Maury and the basis for his social identity. After studying civil engineering at the University of Virginia in 1866-67-68, he set off on journeys that took him from Virginia to New York to England, Africa, and India, and back to Pennsylvania, Texas, and finally home to Virginia—all within a period of some twenty years from about 1870 to 1890. During that period, he held more than thirty different jobs including surveyor, iron worker, seaman, marine engineer, machinist, railroad construction engineer, home builder, city engineer, and many others. Fortunately for historians, he was very observant of the world around him, and his accounts of his life in Albemarle County and his experiences in other parts of the world provide a unique historical record and is compulsively readable.