# John Marshall *American statesman and jurist; fourth chief justice of the United States (1801–1835)* John Marshall (September 24, 1755 – July 6, 1835) was a Virginia-born lawyer, politician and Founding Father. He led the U.S. Supreme Court as its fourth chief justice from 1801 until he died in 1835, and no chief justice has served longer.[^1] Before his appointment he was a U.S. representative from Virginia and then secretary of state under President John Adams. He therefore held constitutional office in all three branches of the federal government.[^1] Adams named Marshall to the Court in 1801. Under Marshall the justices stopped issuing seriatim opinions and began issuing a single majority opinion.[^1] In *Marbury v. Madison* (1803), the first major case of the Marshall Court, his opinion upheld judicial review: the power of courts to strike down federal and state laws that conflict with the Constitution. The holding avoided a direct clash with the executive branch under Democratic-Republican president Thomas Jefferson.[^1] Over his life Marshall owned numerous enslaved people. He wrote seven of the Marshall Court's fourteen slavery decisions, and in each of them he ruled against the enslaved parties.[^7] He died in Philadelphia in 1835 after more than 34 years as chief justice.[^6] ## Early life and education Marshall was born on September 24, 1755, in a log cabin in Germantown, in the Colony of Virginia. In the mid-1760s the family moved northwest to what is now Markham, Virginia.[^2] His parents were Thomas Marshall and Mary Randolph Keith. His father worked in Fauquier County as a surveyor and land agent for Lord Fairfax. Marshall was the first of 15 siblings, and the family shared a two-room log cabin. A younger brother, James Markham Marshall, later briefly served as a federal judge.[^2] Marshall was a first cousin of U.S. Senator Humphrey Marshall and a distant cousin of Thomas Jefferson.[^2] Apart from a single year of formal schooling, during which he befriended future president James Monroe, Marshall had no formal education.[^2] With his parents' encouragement he read widely, including William Blackstone's *Commentaries on the Laws of England* and Alexander Pope's *An Essay on Man*. He was also tutored by the Reverend James Thomson, a deacon from Glasgow who lived with the family in exchange for room and board.[^2] ## Career Marshall joined the Continental Army after the Revolutionary War began and fought in numerous battles. Late in the war he was admitted to the bar.[^1] In early 1782 he was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates, where he aligned with the conservative Tidewater establishment.[^3] He was then elected to the Council of State, the youngest member it had seated to that time. In 1785 he also became Recorder of the Richmond City Hustings Court.[^3] In 1786 Marshall bought the law practice of his cousin Edmund Randolph, who had been elected governor of Virginia. That year he represented Lord Fairfax's heirs in *Hite v. Fairfax*, a dispute over a large tract of land in the Northern Neck.[^3] He supported ratification of the U.S. Constitution and was elected to the 1788 Virginia Ratifying Convention.[^3] At Adams's request, Marshall went to France in 1797 to seek an end to attacks on American shipping. In the episode later called the XYZ Affair, the French government refused to negotiate unless the United States paid bribes.[^1] After returning, Marshall led the Federalist Party in Congress. In 1800, after a cabinet shake-up, he was appointed secretary of state.[^1] ## Authorship of Washington biography After joining the Court, Marshall began a biography of George Washington. He did so at the request of Associate Justice [[Bushrod Washington]], who had inherited his uncle's papers.[^4] *The Life of George Washington* (1804–1807) ran to five volumes and just under a thousand pages, and it was the first published biography of a U.S. president.[^4] The first two volumes appeared in 1804 and were received badly. Many readers saw them as an attack on the Democratic-Republican Party. Historians have since noted the work's accuracy and its frequent paraphrases of earlier sources, among them William Gordon's 1801 history of the Revolution and the British *Annual Register*.[^4] Marshall completed an abridgment for schools in 1833. It was published in 1838, three years after his death.[^4] ## 1829–1830 Virginia Constitutional Convention In 1828 Marshall presided over a convention promoting internal improvements in Virginia. In 1829–30 he sat as a delegate to the state constitutional convention, together with James Madison and James Monroe. Marshall was then 74, Madison 78 and Monroe 71.[^5] Delegates disputed proposals to shift power away from the slaveholding Tidewater and toward the growing western population.[^5] ## Death In 1831, at age 76, Marshall had an operation in Philadelphia to remove bladder stones. His wife, Polly, died in Richmond that December.[^6] He returned to Philadelphia for treatment in early 1835 and died there on July 6, 1835, aged 79.[^6] The Liberty Bell was rung after his death. A widely repeated story holds that the bell cracked on that occasion, but the cited account presents this only as a story.[^6] A few days before his father died, Marshall's eldest son, Thomas, was killed in Baltimore on his way to Marshall's bedside, when a chimney collapsed on him during a storm.[^6] Marshall was one of the last surviving Founding Fathers, a group known as the "Last of the Romans". He was also the last surviving member of the Adams Cabinet.[^6] In December 1835 President Andrew Jackson nominated Roger Taney to succeed him. Marshall was buried beside Polly in Shockoe Hill Cemetery in Richmond.[^6] ## Slavery Marshall's first slave, Robin Spurlock, was a wedding gift from his father, and Spurlock later ran the Richmond household.[^7] At Marshall's death Spurlock was 78. He was given a choice: accept manumission on condition that he leave for another state or for Africa, leaving behind his daughter Agnes, who remained enslaved; or choose a new master from among Marshall's children.[^7] Early in his career Marshall represented enslaved people pro bono, often seeking freedom for people of mixed race. He represented Robert Pleasants, who sought to carry out his father's will freeing about ninety slaves.[^7] Marshall won in the Virginia High Court of Chancery, in an opinion by George Wythe. The Virginia High Court of Appeals later narrowed that holding.[^7] In 1796 Marshall freed Peter, a man he had bought. In 1822 he signed an emancipation certificate for Jasper Graham, who had been freed under the will of John Graham.[^7] After the slave revolts of the early 19th century, Marshall voiced reservations about large-scale emancipation. Virginia passed a law in 1806 requiring freed Black people to leave the state.[^7] Marshall instead favored sending free Black people to Africa. In 1817 he joined the American Colonization Society, whose national president was Bushrod Washington.[^7] ## Personal life and family On January 3, 1783, Marshall married Mary "Polly" Ambler (1767–1831), the daughter of state treasurer Jaquelin Ambler. They had 10 children, and six survived to adulthood.[^8] Their son Thomas later sat in the Virginia House of Delegates.[^8] Marshall built a house in Richmond in 1790. After his father died in 1803 he also inherited the Oak Hill estate.[^8] During the Court's annual term, about three months each year, he lived in Washington. In his last years he boarded with Justice [[Joseph Story]] at the Ringgold-Carroll House. He also rode circuit each year in Raleigh, North Carolina.[^8] Marshall never formally joined a church and did not believe Jesus was divine. Some of his opinions refer to a deist "Creator of all things."[^8] He was an active Freemason and served as Grand Master of Masons in Virginia in 1794–1795.[^8] ## Impact and legacy Wikipedia's account says the three chief justices before Marshall, [[John Jay]], [[John Rutledge]] and [[Oliver Ellsworth]], left little lasting mark beyond setting up the forms of office.[^9] On that account, Marshall's 34-year tenure made the Court a third, co-equal branch, working with associate justices including Story, [[William Johnson (judge)]] and Bushrod Washington.[^9] Marshall used Federalist approaches to build a strong federal government, against the Jeffersonian Republicans, who favored stronger state governments.[^9] The Marshall Court struck down an act of Congress only once, in *Marbury v. Madison* in 1803. That case nonetheless established the Court's power to overrule Congress, the President, the states and the lower courts.[^9] Marshall's rulings also protected corporate property by linking corporations' rights to those of their stockholders.[^9] Among European jurists, Hans Kelsen drew on the principle of judicial review for the constitutions of Czechoslovakia and Austria.[^9] ## Monuments and memorials Preservation Virginia maintains Marshall's Richmond home as a museum. His birthplace in Fauquier County is preserved as the John Marshall Birthplace Park.[^10] His engraved portrait appeared on the series 1890 and 1891 treasury notes. It also appeared on the series 1914 $500 [[Federal Reserve]] notes until William McKinley replaced him in 1928.[^10] He was honored on a commemorative silver dollar in 2005 and on a 40¢ Liberty Issue postage stamp in 1955.[^10] William Wetmore Story, son of Joseph Story, sculpted the bronze statue *Chief Justice John Marshall*. It was unveiled in 1884 on the U.S. Capitol's west plaza and now stands on the ground floor of the Supreme Court building.[^10] Other castings stand in John Marshall Park in Washington, D.C., and at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Marshall, Michigan, is named for him.[^10] ## Notes [^1]: Wikipedia, *John Marshall* (revision 1379665708, retrieved 2026-10-26), lead section — dates, offices, appointment, XYZ Affair, Court practice and *Marbury v. Madison*. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Marshall [^2]: Wikipedia, *John Marshall* (revision 1379665708, retrieved 2026-10-26), "Early life and education" — birth, family, schooling and reading. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Marshall [^3]: Wikipedia, *John Marshall* (revision 1379665708, retrieved 2026-10-26), "Career" — House of Delegates, Council of State, law practice, *Hite v. Fairfax* and the 1788 ratifying convention. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Marshall [^4]: Wikipedia, *John Marshall* (revision 1379665708, retrieved 2026-10-26), "Authorship of Washington biography" — publication dates, reception and abridgment. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Marshall [^5]: Wikipedia, *John Marshall* (revision 1379665708, retrieved 2026-10-26), "1829–1830 Virginia Constitutional Convention" — 1828 convention, 1829–30 delegation and ages. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Marshall [^6]: Wikipedia, *John Marshall* (revision 1379665708, retrieved 2026-10-26), "Death" — 1831 operation, death date, son's death, Taney nomination and burial. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Marshall [^7]: Wikipedia, *John Marshall* (revision 1379665708, retrieved 2026-10-26), "Slavery" — slaveholding, slavery decisions, manumissions, Pleasants case and the American Colonization Society. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Marshall [^8]: Wikipedia, *John Marshall* (revision 1379665708, retrieved 2026-10-26), "Personal life and family" — marriage, children, residences, religion and Freemasonry. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Marshall [^9]: Wikipedia, *John Marshall* (revision 1379665708, retrieved 2026-10-26), "Impact and legacy" — predecessors, associate justices, *Marbury* and corporate rights. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Marshall [^10]: Wikipedia, *John Marshall* (revision 1379665708, retrieved 2026-10-26), "Monuments and memorials" — preserved sites, currency, coin, stamp and statue. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Marshall