Author: Marshall, Humphrey
Biography:
MARSHALL, Humphrey (1760-1841: ANBO)
His family were landowners in Virginia. He was the son of Mary (Quisenberry) and John Marshall, born on their farm near Warrenton VA and educated by tutors at home and at the neighbouring plantation of his uncle Thomas Marshall. (His cousin John Marshall became US Chief Justice.) Following a three-year term in the state militia, he was awarded 4000 acres in Kentucky and established a farm near Frankfort. He was a qualified surveyor and became a lawyer in Kentucky, using his fees to speculate in land until he became one of the largest landowners in the state. In 1784 he married his cousin Mary Marshall; they had three children, one of whom died in infancy after being struck by lightning. A good speaker with a strong contrarian streak, Marshall was elected several times to the state legislature (1787-9, 1807-9, 1823) and to the senate (1795-1801). (His notorious duel with Henry Clay, in which both were slightly injured, took place in 1809.) From 1810 to 1825 he published a Federalist newspaper, the only one in the state. His most lasting work is a History of Kentucky (1812) but he wrote in various ways about politics all his life, his last publication being Self-Defence (1840), part of an ongoing pamphlet war. Having lost his wife in 1824, Marshall lived in Lexington with his son, Judge Thomas A. Marshall, until his death in 1841. (ANBO 9 Jan. 2020) HJ
Other Names:
- H. Marshall