Justice John Curtis Marshall
(Sep 24, 1755-Jul 6, 1835)
Occupation: Attorney, US Supreme Court Justice.
Education: Home schooling, Campbell Academy in Westmoreland County, College of William and Mary.
Interred: Shockoe Hill Cemetery, Richmond City, Virginia
Lodge affiliation:
Member, Richmond Lodge #13, now #10, of Richmond, Va.
Member, Richmond-Randolph Lodge #19, Richmond, Va.
1793-95 - Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Virginia.

Member, Richmond Chapter #3, R.A.M., Richmond

Chief Justice John Marshall was born on September 24, 1755, in rural Fauquier County, near Germantown on the Virginia frontier. He was the first of 15 children born to Thomas Marshall and Mary Randolph Keith. His father was a land surveyor for Lord Fairfax.

As a child, Marshall was mainly home-schooled by his father. He did spend one year at Campbell Academy in Westmoreland County, with future U.S. President James Monroe as his classmate. In 1780, Marshall studied law by attending a series of Judge George Wythe's lectures at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia—the only formal legal education that Marshall would receive and soon obtained a firm grasp on English common law. That same year, he was admitted to the Virginia bar and began his own legal practice.

Marshall began his career in government by representing Fauquier County in the General Assembly for a single term. In 1782, he joined the Virginia House of Delegates, representing Henrico County. He would return to the position in 1787, and again in 1795. Marshall ran for city council in 1785, but came in second and was made city recorder instead. One of his duties as city recorder was to act as magistrate on the Richmond Hustings Court, where he presided over small criminal and civil court cases. In 1788, Marshall became a delegate to the state convention that had been formed to ratify the United States' Constitution. In 1798, Marshall was invited to join the U.S. Supreme Court. Still thriving and content with his private practice at the time, however, he turned down the position. Serving as one of three envoys to France, Marshall was sent there to help improve relations between the United States and France. In 1799, Marshall was elected to a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, a position he would hold only briefly, as he was appointed secretary of state under President John Adams in 1800. In 1801 he was appointed by President John Adams as the fourth Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States and served until 1835, serving through the administrations of six presidents: John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson.