xt7gqn5z6h1w https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7gqn5z6h1w/data/mets.xml Quisenberry, Anderson Chenault, 1850-1921. 1892  books b98-37-40931348 English Sun Pub., : Winchester, Ky. : Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Marshall, Humphrey, 1760-1841. Life and times of Hon. Humphrey Marshall  : sometime an officer in the Revolutionary War ... senator in Congress from 1795 to 1801 ... / by A.C. Quisenberry. text Life and times of Hon. Humphrey Marshall  : sometime an officer in the Revolutionary War ... senator in Congress from 1795 to 1801 ... / by A.C. Quisenberry. 1892 2002 true xt7gqn5z6h1w section xt7gqn5z6h1w 










































HUMPHREY MARSHALL.
     I76- 184 1.

 









       LIFC RND TIMES








Hon. HUMPHREY MARSHALL.




   AN OFFICER IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WARB; MEMBER FOR THE
   DISTP.ICT OF KENTUCKY OF THE VIRGINIA CONVENTION (1788)
     WHICH ADOPTED THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION; MEMBER
       FuO;M FAYETTE COUNTY, Ky., OF ONE OR MORE OF
       THE CONVENTIONS AT DANVILLE LOOKING TO THE
         ERECTION OF KENTU-CKY INTO A SEPARATE
           STATE; SEVERAL TIMES A MEMBER OF THE
           KENTUCKY LEGISLATURE; SENATOR
              IN CONGRESS FROM 1795 TO 1801;

   AUTHOR OF MARSHALL'S HISTORY OF KENTUCKY,

                   ETC., ETC., ETC.



Y-3 -A- C-. SIEBY




       WINCHESTER, KY.:
    THE SUN PUBLIS8NG COMPANY,
             1892.

 This page in the original text is blank.

 











    HE elder Humphrey Marshall, the stormy petrel of Kentuc--ky's
    earlier years, presents one of the most unique and picturesque
figures that has yet been furnished by American history. So strange
and varying were the fortunes and vicissitudes of his tt mpesituous
career, that the recital of them by a more competent bicgrapher than
the present one would prove more striking and more interesting than a
romance.
   lie was a man of the most inflexible integrity, of the highest order
of intelligence, and of the most dauntless moral and physical courage.
He had, at one time, a flattering promise of a long and illustrious public
career, but his very integrity and force of character proved the ruin of
his political hopes. Never for an instant would he hold his eonvictiol 
in abeyance as a matter of policy. With him to think was to say and tc
do, regardless of consequences.
    His loftier political aspirations were frustrated by a cabal between
the flower and the fruition of whose ambitions he interposed the chilling
frost of his unpurchaseable integrity. As he could neither be seduced
by the prospect of power nor influenced by the promise of gain to depart
from the line of duty and the pathway of honor, the cabal, by means
they knew only too well how to employ, crushed him to the earth, as
they fondly imagined. His character was blackened in a thousand insid-
ious ways, and every means that could be devised to disgrace, degrade
and humiliate him, was put into operation. Mobs were even incited to
inflict upon him personal outrage. The leaders in the dark rooms pulled
the wires, and innumerable puppets assailed him in innumerable ways,
until it came to be said that he was the best hated man of his day. But
at this distance of time, and in this era of Kentucky's history, the scenes

 

have shifted; and while the memory of many of the men who persecuted
him rest under either absolute disgrace or else the shadow of suspicion,
no disinterested persons doubt the integrity of Humphrey Marshall's
purposes, however much they may think he may have been led into error
by the strength of his prejudices. To this generation of Kentuckians it
is hardly necessary to say more in vindication of the man than that he
he was the bosom friend and possessed the perfect confidence and esteem
of Washington.
   The people of Kentucky should have a biography of so illustrious
and so remarkable a Kentuckian as Humphrey Marshall. The author of
this sketch had long hoped that such a work might be written by some
historian competent to do it justice, and, at last, in despair of this, un-
dertook it himself.
    Humphrey Marshall has now lain for fifty years in his grave. After
so long a time has elapsed it has been an exceedingly difficult matter to
collect data for the work. Mr. Marshall himself left no materials for
his biography. If he did this writer has been unable, after a most
patient and thorough inquiry, to find them. Much matter which would
have added greatly to the interest and value of this biography has been,
by the lapse of many years, irrecoverably lost. As it is, the compiler of
the work, snatching when he could a few hours from the daily require-
ments of a busy life, has gone through a long and laborious search
among public records, old pamphlets, files of old newspapers, &c., &c.,
and appropriated for his purpose every available scrap of information
which he thought might serve to make his work full, authentic, and
interesting. This labor has also been supplemented by an extensive
correspondence numerous letters having been written to all parts of the
country, and to every person from whom there was reason to believe that
information of value concerning Mr. Marshall might be obtained. In
this way much authentic tradition and many actual observations have
been gathered. But, after all, it is feared that the work is very imper-
fect and meager.
    This biography of Humphrey Marshall was prepared for the Filson
Club, of Louisville, Ky., before which body it was read at the meetings
for December 1890, and January and February, 1891.
    Col. Thomas Marshall Green's "Spanish Conspiracy," though printed
more than a year ago, was not written until after this sketch had been

 


completed. It is earnestly recommended for the perusal of all who may
become interested in this book; for the two works, without any intention
or prearrangement, are supplemental to each other, The "Spanish Con-
spiracy" is an important contribution to Kentucky History; and its
author has uttered it in no uncertain tones.
                                               A. C. QUISENBEBHY.
    WASIIINGTON, D. C.,
       October 16, 1892.

 This page in the original text is blank.

 


             THe LIFe XND TIMCS



  THE HON. HUMPHREY MARSHALL,


           Tdthor of the Historu of Kentdtlk.



                    Paternal Aneestry.

   In the Northern Neck of Virginia there settled at an early day many
families which have since become distinguished, socially and politically.
Among these the Marshall family is by no means the least. During
more than a century of the sluggish, monotonous life, which preceded
the Revolution they, like the most of their neighbors, were plain, sub-
stantial people, not at all distinguished for anything, perhaps, except
the simple integrity of their characters.
   But the outbreak of the Revolution was the signal of a revolution
indeed in Old Virginia. Almost imperceptibly the race of plain, simple
planters became a race of statesmen and soldiers, nearly peerless on the
field and in the forum. While the Virginians as a whole became distin-
guished in this respect, the "Tuckahoes," or citizens of the Northern
Neck, became pre-eminent in the same respect among Virginians. The
county of Westmoreland alone furnished the illustrious names of the
Washingtons, the Lees, the Marshalls, the Madisons, the Monroes, the
Popes, and many others; and of these the Marshall family has furnished
many members who have been distinguished in every public and private
walk of life, and who have contributed no small share to the lustre of
their country's history.
   There are families of the name of Marshall in England, Ireland,

 

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF



Scotland and Wales, but it is not now known from which of these the'
family of Virginia Marshalls sprung. There are traditions, indeed, but
they rest upon no authenticated records, or proof of any kind, and even
the traditions vary. The farthest back to which they can be certainly
traced is to Thomas Marshall, a planter in the Washington Parish of
Westmoreland County, Virginia, who is supposed to have settled there
about 1649. The tradition held by Dr. Louis Marshall, of Woodford
County, Kentucky, during his lifetime, has been accepted with some
degree of credit by later members of the various branches of the family,
and is certainly as authentic as any mere tradition could be. It is that
the Thomas Marshall mentioned above, was the son of a John Marshall,
which John Marshall was the son of a Thomas Marshall, an Irishman,
who had been in the army of Charles I., and who had left England and
come to America during the usurpation of Cromwell.
   In what is called "The Acts of Settlement of 1649" in the "Landed
Gentry of Ireland in Cromwell's Time," there is a list of officers to whom
arrears of pay were due for services in the royal army of Charles I., and
in this list stands the name of "Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Marshall."
An unsuccessful effort has been made to connect this man with the Vir-
ginia Marshall&, but he is, in all probability, the Irish Royalist contem-
plated in Dr. Louis Marshall's tradition.
   On the other hand, in a list of persons sentenced to be transported
from various English and Irish ports, is the name of Thomas Marshall,
an Irishman, who was transported to the Barbadoes for participation in
Monmouth's rebellion against James II., and as many people came from
the Barbadoes to Virginia, this man may have been the same Thomas
Marshall to whom the Virginia Marshalls can be traced with absolute
certainty.
   Thomas Marshall had an estate of twelve hundred acres of land,
located in the Washington Parish of Westmoreland County, Virginia,
two hundred acres of which he purchased from Major Francis Wright,
whose wife was the daughter of the first John Washington and Anne
Pope. He died in 1704, and by his will, which is still to be seen among
the records of the Westmoreland County Court, he left all his land to his
eldest son, WILLIAM MARSHALL, who was the ancestor of Gen. Robert An-



8

 

HUMPIIREY IMARSHIALL THE ELDER.



derson (of Fort Sumpter fame) of Gov. Charles Anderson, of Marshall
Anderson, Larz Anderson, William Anderson and John Anderson; of
Chief Justice William S. Pryor; and of the 'Marshalls of lIen derson, Ky.
   Thomas Marshall's second son, John Marshall, married Elizabeth
Markham, and by her had four sons; viz:
   THoMAS, who was a Colonel in the Revolutionary army, and the
father of Chief Justice John Marshall, of the United States Supreme
Court; of Dr. Louis Marshall; of Alexander K. Marshall; of Mary Mar-
shall (who married Humphrey Marshall, the subject of this sketch) and
of Nancy Marshall, who married Joseph Hamilton Daveiss;
   WILLIAM, an eloquent and famous Baptist preacher of early days,
who was the ancestor of the Marshalls of Bracken County, Kentucky;
   JOjuN, who married Mary Qn1iscnbcr;ry, and became the father of
Humphrey Marshal1: and
   MARKHAMr, ihv ais the anstor of ln. Duff Grccn, tle edi',,tr of
the old Wadhiotoju  Tck'cj,-'t, xvli ih l-as so famous and so Y) efal In
its day.


                   Maternal Ancestry.

   As has been stated, John Marshall married Mary Quisenberry, and
to them was born, among numerous other children, Humphrey MIar..hall,
the subject of this sketch. Mary Quisenberry was the daughter of
Humphrey Quisenberry, a wealthy planter of the Washington Parish, of
Westmoreland County, Virginia, and in whose honor Humphrey Mar-
shall was evidently named. He was the neighbor of the elder John
Marshall, as his grand-father, John Quisenberry, had been of the first
Thomas Marshall; and they were all buried in the Pope's Creek Cein-
etery, an old colonial burying ground in Westmoreland County, where
inscribed tombstones once abounded, but where not one is now to be
seen. Humphrey Quisenberry died in 1776, and his will, probated that
year, gives the bulk of his property to his children by his second wife;
but other bequests to his elder set of children give some information
about them, and show that one of them, his daughter Jane, was the
wife of Lawrence Pope. There is no certain proof of it, but it is alto-

 

THE LTFE AND TIMES OF



gether probable that this Lawrence and Jane Pope were the ancestors of
that John Pope who was afterwards a Senator in Congress from Ken-
tucky, and who was Humphrey Marshall's political and personal friend
throughout life.
   The Quisenberrys, like all their neighbors prior to the Revolution,
were plain, respectable people, and they were among the earlier settlers
of Virginia, coming there from England at a very early day. A numer-
ous family of them were living in 1653 in that portion of Northumber-
land County which was that year cut off and erected into Westmoreland
County. The exact date of the arrival of the first of the name from
England is not certainly known.




        j4umphvey Marshall's Sirth and Youth.

   John Marshall and Mary Quisenberrv were married about 1758 or '59.
Both had been born and reared in the Washington Parish of Westmore-
land County, but some time before his marriage John Marshall had
bought land in Fauquier County, where his brother, Col. Thomas Mar-
shall, had also purchased an estate, and to that county he took his young
wife, and there they set to work to establish a home. They were in
very humble circumstances, and they had a large family of children,
nearly all of whom afterwards went to Kentucky and became wealthy.
   John Marshall was not a Baptist preacher, as is stated in Perrin's
"Pioneer Press of Kentucky," nor was he. indeed, a preacher of any
kind. He was a plain farmer; a man of good, strong sense. but unam-
bitious, and unassuming.
    Humphrey Marshall was born in Fauquier County, Virginia, in the
year 1760. There is little or no account of how he spent his boyhood
days. There is a tradition that he never went to a school, but that his
cousin, Mary. Marshall, who afterwards became his wife, and who was
his senior, taught him to read. She was a very intellectual, gifted, and
highly cultivated woman, who from the beginning took naturally to
books. Gen. Duff Green, the editor of the old Washington Telegraph,
whose mother was a daughter of Markham Marshall and a full first



1o

 


HUMIPHREY MARSHALL THE ELDER.



cousin to both Humphrey Marshall and his wife, in giving an account of
his boyhood and youth, says: "'Mrs. Humphrey Marshall gave me the
use of books from her library, and when I returned them she examined
me upon what I had read."     This was her custom with many.
   Certain it is that Humphrey Marshall, by the display of his natural
and instinctive manliness and integrity, early attracted the fondness
and esteem of his uncle, Col. Thos. Marshall, who was, in very many
respects, perhaps, the greatest of all the Marshall race, and who was
Humphrey's patron and benefactor in his youth, and his ardent friend
throughout life.  Col. Thomas Marshall always had employed in his
family educated Scotchmen as private tutors for his children;  and,
after the first pleasant lessons from his future wife, it is altogether
probable that such education as Humphrey Marshall had, he received
from these tutors in the family of his uncle.

                                  IM;

         4is Serviees in the Revolutionary Wet'.

   At the age of about eighteen years, Humphrey Marshall enlisted for
a term of three years in the Virginia State Regiment of Artillery. All
accounts of his services in that war now appear to be lost, except the
following records in the offices of the Commissioner of Pensions, at
Washington, and of the Register of the Land Office, at Richmond, Vir-
ginia, which are here given entire; viz:

                               DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,
                                           BUREAU OF PENSIONS,
                                   Washington D. C, Sept. i8, i888.
   Sir:-In accordance with your request of the I2th for information of
Humphrey Marshall, an officer-in the Revolutionary War from Virginia, you

Ma Justice Joseph P. Bradley, of the Supreme Court, in an article on Chief Justice John
  "Hrshl, in the Centu  Magazine for September,  889, says:
        "H father, Col. Thomas Mrshall, wag an intimate friend and old schoolmate of
Washing ton, and was associated with him it, the surveys of the Fairfax estates   
His mother was Mary Keith, daughter of the Episcopal clergyman of the Parish, and
educated in the choicest English literature of that day. The home was u constant and
regularly organized school. The best English poets and historians were made as familiar
as. ousehold words, and the mathematical and other sciences were not neglected.    
When he had become sufficiently advanced a private tutor was procured to) initiate him
into the mysteries of classical lore. Rev. James Thomson, an tpisco pa1 minister from
Scotland, was employed for this duty."
  Humphrey Marshall undoubtedly enjoyed all these advantages.



11

 


THE LIFE AND TIMES OF



will receive herewith enclosed, a statement on separate sheets of so much
history as is contained in his application for pension.
                                         Very Respectfully,
                                                    JOHN C. BLACK,
                                                        Commissioner.



    In July, x832, he stated that he was a native of Virginia, and residing in
Franklin County, Kentucky; and that be was an officer in the Revolutionary
War in 1778-'9-'80 and 178;1 and on February 6, I78I, he became a super-
numerary officer, at which date he was a Captain-Lieutenant, having been in
1778 a 3d Lieutenant, and in 1779 a First-Lieutenant in a regiment of Vir-
ginia Artillery commanded by Col. Thomas Marshall of the State Line. He
enlisted to serve three years, being first attached to the company of Capt.
Elisha Edwards, and afterwards to others. He entered the service in said
regiment on January 4, I778, as a Cadet. (There were many cadet appoint-
ments during the early part and in the middle period of the war.)
    JOHN MARSHALL (probably a Captain in the Virginia Line), a witness,
testified that the Act for raising the above State Regiment of Artillery, was
passed by the Legislature at its Spring Session in 1777; and his father, Col.
Thomas Marshall was appointed to the command, and left the Northern
Army, where he commanded the Virginia Third Regiment of the Continental
Line, in December, I777, for the purpose of visiting his family before taking
charge of the new regiment. (The witness was then in the historic camp of
Valley Forge). Col. Thomas Marshall appointed Humphrey Marshall a cadet
or subaltern officer in the Artillery regiment. When the "term" of the three
years men expired the Virginia regiments were broken up, and the few men
who had enlisted for the war were marched into Virginia: and the officers
not needed came home to wait until measures should be taken to procure
men. In March, 1780, the witness went to Williamsburg, where he remained
until July. In March and April he was occasionally at York, where a portion
of the regiment was stationed, and where he regularly saw Humphrey Mar-
shall in actual service. A part of this regiment composed a part of the corps
which marched South under Lt.-Col. Porterfield, but he did not recollect
whether Humphrey Marshall marched with the detachment, or not; rather
thought he did not. (Deposition taken in Richmond, Va., in June, 1832).
    JAMES M. MARSHALL (deposition taken in June, i832, in Frederick County,
Va.) testified that Humphrey Marshall continued with the regiment until the
three years term of the men had expired, and it was disbanded; and Hum-
phrey was then a Captain-Lieutenant. (James M. Marshall was a Lieutenant
in the State troops, and served to the end of the war).



12

 


HUMPHREY MARSHALL THE ELDER.



   December i9. 1782, was allowed a warrant for four thousand acres of
land to Humphrey Marshall, as a Captain, by the State of Virginia
   His death, as officially reported to the Pension Office, was July 3, 1841.



                      COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA, LAND OFFICE,
                                         Richmond, Sept. I7, i888.
    SIR: I find the following in the records of this office; to-wit:
                                         Richmond, Dec. 14, 1782.
   I certify that Humphrey Marshall was a cadet in the State Artillery in
1777; was made an officer in the same regiment in 1778, a Captain-Lieutenan t
on December i8th, I779; and that he is now a supernumerary.
                                     GEORGE MUTER, Col. S. G. R.
    BENJAMIN HARRISON.

    Warrant for 4ooo acres issued to Humphrey Marshall December igth,
1782.         Respectfully,  W. R. GAINES, Register Va. Land Office.

    A letter from the Secretary of State, at Washington, in whose De-
partment the military records of the Revolutionary War are preserved,
states that the name of Humphrey Marshall does not appear upon the
fndlces of those records, though the records themselves, if carefully
searched, might reveal some interesting matter in reference to his servi-
ces in that war.
    As Humphrey Marshall performed all the public duties which fell to
his lot conscientiously, and without fear or favor, it may be reasonably
assumed, in the absence of actual information, that he acquitted him-
self with equal credit in the army. His courage, at any rate, is known
to have been of the very first-class; and courage, is undoubtedly the
chief and indispensable quality of a good soldier.

                                 -31

                    Removal to Kentueky.

    Collins' History of Kentucky says that "Humphrey Marshall emi-
grated to Kentucky in 1780." This is evidently a mistake, since he must
have been with his regiment in Virginia at that time; and, as we have



13

 


THE LIFE AND TIMES OF



seen, his term  of service as a soldier did not expire until February, 178L
Mlarshall's History of Kentucky states that in the year 1780 "Col. Thomas
Marshall, who had distinguished himself by his bravery and good con-
duct at the battle of Brandywine, and then commander of the regiment
of State Artillery" came to Kentucky on a special permit from the Gov-
ernor of Virginia; and that "his immediate object was to locate land
warrants as a provision for a numerous family which he intended to
remove to the country on the restoration of peace."

   Humphrey Marshall, indeed, in the 1812 edition of his history states
that it was in the fall of 1781 that he first visited Kentucky, and then
but temporarily.  John Marshall, the father of Humphrey, came to
Kentucky in 17.79, with his younger brother, Markham Marshall, and
settled in what is now Bourbon County, and lived there until the time of
his death, years afterwards.

    In 1781, Col. Thomas Marshall, whose regiment of Artillery had
dissolved in February of that year, was appointed Surveyor for Fayette
County, Ky., but "he was in the Atlantic part of the State, and did not
arrive in Kentucky during the year." He reached Kentucky in Septem-
ber, 1782, with the view of opening an office as public Surveyor for
Fayette, but this was postponed, on account of an expedition against
the Indians of the North, which occurred at that time; and it was not
until late in November of 1782 that the office was actually opened, and
he began his operations as Surveyor.
    Humphrey Marshall came with Col. Thomas Marshall to Kentucky
In 1782, and from that date commenced his permanent residence in "the
dark and bloody ground." He began his career here as a deputy in the
Surveyor's office; and he had probably picked out the land to be covered
by the military land warrant for four thousand acres which he returned



    Pages 348-q.-The autumn of this year (x7Si) introduced a greater accession of new
settlers.    It was now for the first time that we saw Kentucky and had our eyes
opened to the prospect of resources never before contemplated. We found the people of
the country in their stations cheerful, inquisitive and hospitable. It was delightful to see
them so delighted with the brightening prospect of security, arising from their accession
of numbers. A determination to return to the old settlement (as the phrase then was for
going into the Atlantic part of the State) and prepare for a permanent residence in Ken-
tucky, limited our stay, as it circumscribed our excursions; nor were we at any time be-
yonnd the limits of Lincoln county.



14

 

             HUMPHREY M1rARS1HALL THE ELDER.                     15

to Virginia to secure, in December, 1782, on account of his services ill
the Revolutionary war.
   In the year 1788, Humphrey Marshall had a rencontre in Lexington
with a Mr. Jordan Harris, which shall be described in due course. The
fact is mentioned in this connection because Mr. Harris, who brought on
the trouble and got decidedly the worst of it, in order to "get even,"
published an alleged "History of Humphrey Marshall" in a series of
communications to the Kentucke Gazette. Under the circumstances, Mr.
Harris's statements must be taken with a grain of salt; but what he
states in regard to such facts in Humphrey Marshall's career as the
holding of office, seeking office, &c., can be allowed full credibility; and
he states several such facts, which would otherwise have been lost. Mr.
Harris says (Kentuche Gazette, April 5, 1788): "The first knowledge we
had of Capt. Marshall in this country was in 1782-'83, when the bounty
of an indulgent uncle raised him from a state of extreme indigence and
obscurity, made him a deputy surveyor, and placed him as an assistant
in the Surveyor's office of the county. x      The Surveyor's office
was then kept in the fort, in this place" (Lexington).
   It is, perhaps, true that when Humphrey Marshall first came to Ken-
tucky, he was in a measure, indigent and obscure, and without capital,
except such as was comprised by his intellect and courage. His father,
being a younger son, had inherited but little, owing to the old English
system of primogeniture which prevailed in the laws of Virginia until
after the Revolution; and he continued through life in moderate circum-
stances. The Revolution broke out before the son had reached manhood.
and the times in Virginia were not propitious for money-making by
honest men. While still young, perhaps barely twenty-two, Humphrey
Marshall came to Kentucky, and brought some money with hinm-more.
probably, than the generalty of the settlers at that time brought, but
still the sum could not have been large. And his military land warrant
for four thousand acres was certainly valuable.
   His career was a successful one, financially, from the day of his
arrival in the State, and he grew to be immensely wealthy. The bulk of
his large fortune he amassed at his practice of the law, and by invest-
ments and speculations in lands, military claims, &c.

 

THE LIFE A,1ND 71MES OF



   lie settled first in Lexington, and was one of the earliest purchasers
of lots in that town in 1783.  He afterwards lived at various times in
Bourbon, Woodford and Franklin counties, and entered or bought large
tracts in these and many other counties, and doubtless at one time was
one of the largest single landowners in Kentucky. A young gentleman
who went to the Land Office at Frankfort recently to get a memorandum
of the dates of Humphrey Marshall's land entries, and the number of
acres in each, for use in this work, wrote to the author: "It would
involve a week's hard work to take down what you want." There are
hundreds of such entries on the books of Register of the Land Office at
Frankfort, ranging in amount from four hundred to forty thousand acres
each. The Register of the Land Office in Richmond, Virginia, writes
that there are a great many entries of public lands in Kentucky ranging
from four hundred to four thousand acres each, in the name of Hum-
phrey Marshall, on the books of that office.
   Humphrey Marshall seemed to have had a Midas touch, and a harvest
of gold ripened wherever he laid his hands. There is a tradition in
Frankfort that it was once his boast that he could ride from that town
to Versailles, a distance of about twenty miles, entirely upon his own
land; and that he counted his silver money by the peck, not having time
to go through the tedious process of counting it coin by coin!
   All this is, perhaps, a digression, but it is matter which may as well
be related in this connection as in any other.

                               41

                        flis Maiiage.

   In 1784 Humphrey Marshall returned to Virginia, and was married
to his cousin "Mary" Marshall, as she was called, at Col. Thomas Mar-
shall's estate of "Oak Hill," in Fauquier County, on September 18th, of
that year. While Col. Thomas Marshall had settled permanently in
Kentucky in 1782, his family remained at Oak Hill until 1785, when he
removed them, also, to Lexington. Humphrey Marshall's wife was


    Ranck's History of Lexington.



16

 



HUMPHREY MARSHALL THE ELDER.



called "Mary;" numerous deeds of record in the Fayette County Court
are signed by her as "Anna Maria," (which is also inscribed upon her
tomb); and she is named in her father's will as "Mary Anne." She was
born September 19th, 1759, and was Col. Thomas Marshall's second
daughter. It is recorded of her that she was beautiful alike in features,
mind and character, and crowned with all the womanly virtues. She
returned with her husband to Kentucky, and even his bitter enemies (of
whom he had more than one man's share) gave him credit for his love
and devotion to her throughout life.


                 Personal Charaetevisties.

    Being now fully arrived at manhood, married, and settled down to
the serious business of life, it may be as well to give here, as elsewhere,
that account of Humphrey Marshall's personal characteristics which
have descended to his friends by tradition, or otherwise.
   He is described as having been a man of splendid physical mould,
as well as of great mental superiority. He stood six feet two inches high,
and was of a slender though lithe and muscular build. His handsome
face was set off by a luxuriant growth of black hair, and by a pair of
piercing, coal-black-eyes. One writer [Col. S. I. M. Major] in a brief
sketeh of him, states that he gave offense to the mob, or common herd, by
"eccentricities of dress and manner." A gentleman still living, who knew
Humphrey Marshall intimately during twenty or more of the last years
of his life, says that "his dress was always very plain, being generally of
honmesun, but the best and finest that could be made, and cut by a tailor
so as to fit him well and show off his fine form to advantage. His linen
was always of the finest and whitest, and scrupulously clean. In man-
ners he was very graceful-the most graceful man I ever saw. He was
stately, but punctiliously courteous. It may be that he carried his
graciousness to an extent that some regarded as condescension or pat-
ronage. He was fond of children, and was kind, amiable and attractive
to them. At the same time he was not at all conciliatory to his enemies.
The leaders he met with haughty defiance; their catspaW8 he did not
notice. The latter would abuse him, and he would treat them as if



17

 

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF



entirely ignorant of their assaults upon him, and this contemptuous
indifference made him more hated by such men than if he had shot at
them."
   Humphrey Marshall was the very perfection of physical and moral
courage, and never knew fear. It was said of him by one of his enemies,
that "he feared neither God, man, nor the devil." Impelled by an innate
honesty and candor, he never failed to give utterance to his convictions,
no matter how unpopular they might be. It was morally impossible
for him to be untrue to his convictions, and to this cause may be traced
much of the unpopularity which his enemies worked up against him
among the ignorant or unthinking masses, for whom he always had the
most supreme contempt. Says Amos Kendall, writing of him in the
Frankfort Argus in 1824: "The old man has one virtue     this Is
candor. He is an ultra Federalist himself and often expressed-what he
always felt-an utter contempt for the great mass of the people, whom
he, in derision, denominated the 'nether end of society !"'
   When pursued by his enemies, Mr. Marshall boldly faced them with
a blistering tongue and a biting pen. He was an avowed Federalist at a
time when Federalism was as unpopular in Kentucky as Toryism had
been in Virginia during the Revolutibnary War. As to the Tories them-
selves who remained in the States after t