USA > Virginia > Some prominent Virginia families, Volume II > Part 39
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His sixth son, John Thos. Smith, b. June 15, 1816; d. Jan. 28, 1872. Married (Sept. 25, 1845) Margaret L. Marshall, b. Oct. 29, 1823.
VI. John Marshall, Chief Justice of the United States from 1801 to 1835, was b. near Germantown, Fauquier Co., Va., Sept. 24, 1755; d. at Philadelphia,* July 6, 1835. Married (Jan. 3, 1783, at Yorktown, Va.) Mary Willis Ambler, b. March 17, 1766; d. Dee. 25, 1831, at Richmond Va. His descendants were given in Volume I.
The life of Judge Marshall is so interwoven with the adminis- trative, diplomatie and judicial history of the country, that liis
*NOTE .- Chief Justice Marshall died at a boarding house kept by a Mrs. Crim on Walnut Street, below Fifth. He was about to return to Virginia when, while sojourning in the house, he was taken down with his fatal siekness. Mrs. Marshall had always been commended for her purity and piety. Perhaps the mother was more the agent than was the father in bringing their posterity to the house of God. Her husband, though so exalted, was her devoted lover to the last day of her life; and after her death he sanetified its anniversary by writing a letter to a friend detailing her virtues and commending her memory. This letter will be found in Chapter TI, this volume.
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biography would demand of me a full volume. His life has been written a hundred times, and these pages must be reserved for others whose memory might perish if omitted. At the bar and on the beneh-in congress and in eabinet-in the eouneils of war and embassies of peace, he proved himself a jurist, a statesman, a soldier, an orator and a patriot. As the expounder of the Federal Constitution and laws he laid the foundation of a judicial system that has no equal on earth.
V. Elizabeth Marshall, b. ncar Germantown in Fauquier Co., Va., 1756; d. at "Honeywood," Berkeley Co., Va., in 1842. Mar- ried (October 15, 1785) Raleigh Colston, b. May 10, 1749; d. at "Honeywood," Va., 1823. She was the oldest daughter of Col. Marshall, and received her education chiefly from her father. She became the teacher of her brothers and sisters. Her father in his will makes a special bequest to her, as an expression of his gratitude for her self-saerifieing labors for his younger children. At the age of twenty-seven she was married to the wealthy and accomplished Raleigh Colston, at the house of her brother, John, in Richmond. She survived her husband twenty years.
THE COLSTON FAMILY.
1. William Colston, of Bristol, England, was a brother of Edward Colston, the great philanthropist. William, b. about 1618, came to Virginia about 1645, and was elerk of Rappahannock Co., Va.
2. His son William Colston, b. about 1665.
3. Charles Colston, b. about 1690. Married Susan Travers, daughter of William Travers.
4. Travers Colston, b. about 1712. Married, first, Alice Corbin Griffing; after her death married, second, Susanna Opie. The latter was mother of Raleigh Cols- ton, b. May 10, 1749. His son :
5. Thomas M. Colston, b. Nov. 11, 1794; d. April 30, 1840. Married (May 25, 1820) Eliza J. Fisher; d. 1845.
(See the Marshall Family, by Paxton, pp. 52, 53.)
VI. James Markham Marshall, fifth ehild of Col. Thomas Marshall and Mary R. Keith, his wife, b. in Fauquier Co., Va., March 12, 1764; d. at "Fairfield," Fauquier Co., Va., April 26.
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1848. Married (April 9, 1795) Hester Morris, b. July 30, 1774; d. at "Fairfield," April 18, 1876. Both were buried at "Happy Creek."
Mr. Marshall, like his brothers, was thoroughly educated at home. Though quite a youth, he was elected Lieutenant in one of the companies of Alex. Hamilton's regiment, and served to the elose of the Revolutionary War. At the siege of Yorktown he led the "forlorn hope" in an attaek upon the fort. He came to Ken- tucky with his father, and on one occasion went to the field to fight a duel with James Brown, afterward Minister to France and Senator from Louisiana. He returned to Virginia in 1795, and married Hester, daughter of Robert Morris, the great patriot and finaneier of the Revolution. He was sent by Washington as agent of the government, to negotiate the relcase of LaFayette, when a prisoner of Austria, at Olmutz; and while in Paris wit- nessed the outrages of the Reign of Terror. Several years were spent abroad, and his two oldest children were born on ships of war, on the British eoast. While in England he purchased of the heirs of Lord Fairfax all their estates in what was called the Northern Neek of Virginia. This purchase was made in the nanie of John Marshall (Chief Justice), Rawley Colston, Harry (Light Horse) Lee, and James M. Marshall. But the State of Virginia set up title to the lands by confiscation, and a compromise was effected, whereby the company received all the Fairfax lands in Leeds Manor and some other smaller tracts. Their portion en- braced about 180,000 aeres, and the cost to them was something less than one dollar per acre. James M. Marshall purchased the share of Harry Lee, and Mr. Colston took lands on the Potomac. All the unsold lands in Leeds Manor, therefore, went to John and James Marshall, and here their posterity have found homes. They form a community in and around the little town of Marshall, Fau- quier County ; attend Leeds Church, and send their sons to the State University. All are Demoerats, and members of the Epis- eopal Church. They are a frugal, honest, upright, hospitable, sensible and pious people; and I venture to say, there is no spot in the continent that has produced so many preachers to the aere than Leeds Manor, and I am confident that no other portion of the South, of equal population, sent to the Southern Army so many heroes. With a double portion of the lands thus acquired, Mr.
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Marshall beeame a large proprietor, and left his children large estates.
Mr. Marshall studied law, and praetieed in Winehester. He was eminent in his profession, and like all the early members of the family, he was a decided Federalist. Under the tutelage of Alex. Hamilton he could be nothing else. Early in the nineteenth century, Mr. Marshall left Winchester, and built on his "Happy Creek" estate a costly villa, consisting of a baronial eastle, and spacious quarters for his servants, tenants and dependents. This massive structure, with its wide halls and lofty eeilings, still affords shelter for half of his posterity, and its broad and fertile aeres bring them a good ineome. About 1816 he yielded posses- sion of this magnificent estate to his oldest son, R. M. Marshall, and retired to Fairfield, where he died. He was a handsome and dignified old gentleman, six feet two inches tall, weighed about 200 pounds, raw-boned, and he wore a eue, stoekings and knee- buekles.
Mrs. Hester Marshall is said to have been a lovely woman.
THE MORRIS FAMILY.
1. Robert Morris, of Liverpool, and afterwards of Oxford, Md., and agent of the great house of Corneliff & Co., of Liverpool, b. 1702; d. July 12, 1750. His son :
2. Robert Morris, the patriot and Philadelphia finaneier, was b. Jan. 31, 1734. Married (March 2, 1759) Mary White, b. 1739, daughter of Col. Thomas White, and sister of Bishop White, of Pennsylvania, who was the first lawfully eonseerated bishop of the American Episcopal Church. He compiled the Prayer Book called by his name.
3. Hester Morris. Married Jas. M. Marshall. They had issue :
. Thomas Marshall, b. 1796; d. 1826. Married Catherine Thornton.
. Robert M. Marshall, b. 1797; d. 1870. Married (1819) Luey Marshall, b. 1796; d. 1844.
3. James Marshall, b. Oet. 21, 1802; d. 1880.
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. John Marshall, b. June 27, 1804; d. 1855. Married (1837) Mary Shackleford, b. 1811; d. 1849. Married seeond, Rebeeea Boyd Smith, b. Dee. 21, 1822. Issue from this last marriage given in Volume III.
Issue by first marriage :
I. James Marshall, b. 1838; d .---. Married (1879) Mary A. Wellford, b. 1846. I met Mrs. Marshall in 1885, also 1904. Issue:
1. Emmaline W. Marshall, b. Feb. 9, 1880.
2. Beverley A. Marshall, b. June 19, 1882.
II. William Marshall, b. Aug. 1, 1840.
III. Charles S. Marshall, b. 1843. Married (1866) Cary R. Jones, b. 1845. (See Volume I, Chapter VI.)
5. Charles L. Marshall, b. April 14, 1809; d. 1831.
6. Henry Morris Marshall, b. June 13, 1811; d .-. Mar- ried (1834) Elizabeth Marshall (née Brooke), b. 1813.
, Issue.
Elizabeth B. Marshall, b. 1846. Married (1871) Bowles Armistead.
(See deseendants Volume I, Chapter VII, and Armistead Family, Chapter XIX, this volume.)
7. Susan Marshall, b. Oet. 11, 1812; d .-. Married Dr. Richard Cary Ambler, b. Nov. 1810; d. 1877. (Deseendants Volume I, Chapters V and VI.)
6. Judith Marshall, b. about 1766; d .-. Married (about 1783) George Brooke.
7. William Marshall, b. Jan. 31, 1767; d. 1815. Married, seeond, Mary Maeon. (Deseendants Volume I, Chapter VI.)
8. Charles Marshall, b. Jan. 31, 1767; d. 1805. Married (Sept. 13, 1787) Luey Piekett, b. May 2, 1767; d. 1825. 9. Luey Marshall, b. 1768; d. 1795. Married (1790) John Ambler. (Descendants Volume I, Chapter V.)
10. Alexander Keith Marshall, b. 1770; d. Feb. 7, 1825. Married (Oet. 10, 1804) Mary MeDowell, b. Jan. 11, 1772; d. Jan. 27, 1822.
11. Dr. Lewis Marshall, b. 1773; d. 1866. Married (1800) Agatha Smith, b. 1782; d. 1844.
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12. Susan Tarleton Marshall, b. at "Oakhill," Fauquier Co., Va., May 12, 1774; d. Marysville, Ky., 1858. Married (May 25, 1793) Judge William McClung, b. July 1758; d. 1811.
.13. Charlotte Marshall, b. 1777; d. April 17, 1817. Married (1794) Dr. Basil Duke, b. 1766; d. 1828.
14. Jane Marshall, b. at "Oakhill," July 29, 1779; d. Sept. 13, --. Married (Dee. 22, 1799) George Keith Tay- lor, b. March 16, 1769; d. 1815.
15. Naney Marshall, b. about 1781; d .---. Married (1803) Col. Joe Hamilton Davies, b. March 4, 1774; killed at the battle of Tippecanoe, Nov. 8, 1811.
Having omitted the fourth son of Col. Thomas Marshall and Mary Randolph Keith, I will add the following:
Captain Thomas Marshall, brother of John Marshall (Chief Justice), b. in Fauquier Co., Va., October 27, 1761; d. in Wash- ington, Ky., March 19, 1817. Married (1790) Frances Maitland Kennan, b. in Virginia, July 24, 1773; d. in Washington, Ky., November 19, 1833. Mr. Marshall received his education from his father, sisters and tutors employed in the family. At the age of seventeen he volunteered as a private in his father's regiment, and served until the close of the Revolutionary War, at which time he held the commission of a captain. He saw hard service, and participated in many of the bloody battles of the war of Independence. At the end of the war he married Susanna Adams, b. April 1, 1769, daughter of John Adams and Sarah Stacy Gib- bons. Capt. Marshall spent several years on his farm in Fau- quier Co., Va. In the fall of 1788, or the spring of 1789, he eame to Kentucky.
Capt. and Mrs. Marshall lie side by side in the "Hill" cemetery. His epitaph reads :
Thomas Marshall, son of Thomas Marshall, was born on the 27th of October, 1761, and serving his friends, his family, his country and himself, departed this life the 19th day of March, 1817. To all, especially to the widows and orphans of the poor, to one as a friend, and to the other as a benefactor. To his memory his affectionate widow and children have constructed this monument.
Mrs. Frances M. Marshall was reared an Episcopalian, was somewhat inclined to the Baptists, but joined the Presbyterian
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Church, that she might be with her friends. She joined the Church in 1818, and from that day her house was the home of all l'res- byterian ministers.
Her epitaph reads :
Erected to the memory of Mrs. Frances Marshall, who died November 19, 1833, in the 61st year of her age. During the vicissitudes of a long life, chequered, as is the lot of humanity, with much of happiness and more of sorrow, the character of the deceased remained the same. An affectionate wife, a fond mother, an humble but ardent Christian, a warm-hearted and devoted friend, she will long be remembered in that extensive circle of friends and relatives who, for many years, met at her hospitable board, and to whom her house was a home. In the bosom of that numerous connection, who had known her worth and shared her affection, she expired calmly, cheerfully, happily, in the full hope of a joyful resurrection.
Eliza Colston Marshall, fourth child, b. March 17, 1801; d. July 19, 1874. Married (Sept. 19, 1819) Martin P. Marshall, b. Feb. 10, 1798; d. May 9, 1883. Charles Marshall, second child, b. March 1, 1825; d --. Married (Nov. 22, 1854) Jane Taylor, b. March 3, 1823. She was still living last time I heard of her. Lizzie Marshall, second child. Married Richard Cary Ambler.
(Sce Volume I, Chapter VI.)
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CHAPTER XV
THE HARRISON FAMILY.
The aneestry of Benjamin Harrison, President of the United States of America, 1889-1893, by Charles P. Keith, has the follow- ing:
A tradition, mentioned by President William Henry Harrison, made him a descendant of the regieide General Thomas Harrison. It has not been generally accepted throughout the family, and is certainly untrue as far as it involves direet descent, for the regi- cide was a contemporary of the Harrison who emigrated to this country, and was probably a few years younger.
If the tradition may be construed to mean that both were of the same family, we cannot at once rejeet it, finding it extant among the children of persons born within seventy years of the regieide's execution. That took place in October, 1660. Benjamin Harri- son, the signer, was born about 1726, and his brother Carter Henry Harrison a few years later.
A number of Harrisons settled in Virginia in the seventeenth eentury. The connection between but few of them is known. Those who emigrated before Benjamin the Clerk apparently died without issue. Brown is right in making George, who was killed in a duel, the brother of Sir John. Very soon after 1640, ap- peared Thomas and Edward, the former figuring in Neill's works on Virginia history, first as Governor Berkeley's ehaplain, and then as a non-conformist divine.
They are mentioned also in Savage's Genealogieal Dictionary of New England, as they resided there for some time. They are embraced in the following tradition, brought over from England by Rev. Joseph Harrison, a native of Skipton, Yorkshire, who lived in the City of New York, in the early part of the present century, viz., four brothers of the name went to America, whom the Rev. Joseph Harrison ealled Thomas, Richard, Benjamin and Nathaniel, of whom, his own father had told him, two went north, and two south; a fifth brother, Edward, a clergyman, remaining in England, Cromwell being a member of his chiureh.
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Now, as we have seen, the name of the clergyman was Thomas, and he was one of those who came to America. Yet afterwards, he preached in London, and accompanied Henry Cromwell to Ire- land. Edward, too, was one of those who came to America. I can find no Nathaniel here at that time, nor any Benjamin in such registers in Yorkshire as have been examined, but the Richard of the tradition appears to be identical with the Richard living in New Haven in 1644; he may have been the father of Thomas, who was of New Haven in 1654, and of Branford in 1666 (one of whose sons was called Nathaniel), as well as of Richard, who had a son Benjamin born in 1655. Four sons of Richard the younger, viz., John, Joseph, George and Daniel, removed to New Jersey. Thus we have two brothers going to Virginia, and two other branches of the family, descended from a third brother, settling in Connecticut and New Jersey. The Harrisons of the latter State claimed that one of their family went to Virginia, and a removal thither at the beginning of the eighteenth century is not improbable.
Among the other Harrisons who came to Virginia were Dr. Jeremy and his wife, Frances, the latter as a widow receiving in 1654 a patent for 1,000 acres in Westmoreland Co. In 1655, 1,000 acres were granted to her brother-in-law, John Harrison, entail remainder to her, remainder to Giles Brent of Peace in said county.
The records of S. Runwald's Parish, Colchester, give us the baptism December 31, 1610, of John, son of Sydney Harrison ; and December 31, 1612, of Jeremy, son of Sydney Harrison.
Benjamin as a baptismal name had some popularity in the century following the Reformation, or, rather, the revival of interest in the Old Testament. It does not argue relationship to find a number of Harrisons in the time of King James I bearing the name of the youngest of the patriarchs. There was a Benjamin among the Harrisons of Northampton, appearing in the "Visitation of Northamptonshire" of 1619, but there is no evidence that he was the emigrant to Virginia. He was of the generation born before the year 1600, so that he would not have been under fifty when the emigrant's eldest son was born.
It would be gratuitous to assume that Benjamin mentioned in the visitation had a son of the same name who was the emigrant to Virginia. The coat-of-arms was never claimed by the Virginia
.
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family. However, there is little argument to be made from coats- of-arms, when they first appeared in the family several generations after the emigrant, as seems to have been the case with the Virginia Harrisons, who, moreover, at different times have used different ones. There is none on the tomb of the emigrant's son, and the arms of the tomb of the grandson, Benjamin, of "Berkeley," are those of the Burwell family.
On the tombstone of Mrs. Mary (Diggs) Harrison, who died in 1744, and was the wife of the emigrant's great-grandson, is impaled gules, two bars sable between six estoiles placed three, two, one ; which with the difference of azure instead of gules are those of the Harrisons who for some time past have been seated at Copford Hall, near Colehester, Essex.
It is noteworthy that there was a Benjamin among the brothers of John Harrison of St. Michael's, Wood Street, London, who, by his will dated February 19, 1638, devised lands "lately given unto me and my heirs by my grandmother situate in Lance, in the parish of Coppeford in Co. Essex," to his brother Franeis and his heirs, and, in default of issue, to his said brother Benjamin, in fee. This Benjamin lived at Oldham and Ipswich, Suffolk, and had a son of the same name, mentioned in the will of Judith Harrison in 1638, and of Robert Harrison in 1641, but I do not suppose the son old enough to have been Clerk of the Virginia Couneil, about 1630, and perhaps both Benjamins are accounted for in the grant of letters of administration on the estate of persons of the name, one of Ipswich, on October 18, 1665, to his reliet Susan, and the other "lately in parts beyond the seas, bachelor," on September 26, 1682, to Thomas Younger, a ereditor. The only Benjamin mentioned in the Harrison wills of Essex was the son of George, by his wife Emma, Emma having died in, or before 1616, as she was then spoken of as deceased by her mother Susan, who had also married a Harrison. This Benjamin survived the emigrant four years, being appointed in 1653 supervisor of the will of a brother, George, and may have been the Benjamin Harrison of St. Sepul- chre's, London, on whose estate letters of administration were granted on April 29, 1663, to his relict Elizabeth.
Perhaps it is better that a family so associated with the history of this country-even in its early existenee as a group of colonies, each generation holding a respectable position in the government
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of the largest-should look to no other country as the field of any of its greatness, in fact, that its standing in the Old World should not be precisely known.
It is not certain that even the name of the emigrant's father . would have been ascertained, if all the Harrison wills of the seven- teenth century in the British Isles could have been examined. There were, except in the days of the Commonwealth, a great number of probate courts, acting under the respective archbishops, archdeacons, etc., even in some localities under borough authority. I have had such wills examined as my supposed clues called for, including all those of the name during certain periods in the Prerogative courts of Canterbury, and in those courts usually acting for London, Middlesex, Essex, Kent, Suffolk, Lincolnshire, Staf- fordshire, and Yorkshire, and can assert nothing. To have been employed as Clerk of the Virginia Council indicates that Harrison, the emigrant, had education and ability, and the sooner this hap- pened after his arrival, the more likely that he had some early acquantance with important persons in the colony or belonging to the company.
A clerk was appointed by the Governor or Council on the death or absence of the Secretary of the Colony. On June 11, 1621, the Virginia Company removed John Pory from the Secretaryship, and elected Christopher Davison, a brother of Francis Davison, the poet, and a son of a Secretary of State under Queen Elizabethi (see Neill's Virginia Carolorum). Davison dicd, and in 1624 Edward Sharpless was made clerk. He had not served much more than a year when he was removed, and his ears cut off, for disclosing public documents. On March 4, 1625-6, William Claiborne was commissioned secretary by the King. Claiborne was not in the Province when, about January, 1629 or '30, Governor Harvey arrived, bearing a commission, dated March 22, 1627 or '28, which also reappointed Claiborne as secretary.
Before Harvey's departure from England, a number of planters from the Somers Islands (now Bermudas) united in a petition, presented to Parliament on June 4, 1628, setting forth that most of them had lived there since the infancy of the plantation, i. c., for over six years, had lately brought to England their small means in tobacco, which had lain in the customs house four months under a higher duty than it would yield, and they were in great necessity,
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some have been arrested for their board, and praying to have their tobacco by bills of store for the present year. There was a Ben Harrison joining in this petition; but, as all the names appended are in one handwriting, his signature eannot be compared with that of the Clerk of the Virginia Council of that name. On the tobacco being released at a smaller duty, this Somers Islander may have transported himself to Virginia, a colony elosely connected with the other. Nobody else appearing in the records as clerk, he may have been employed as such as soon as William Claiborne left the colony, or he may have arrived with Harvey, and, the Seeretary not being there, had been made elerk at the new Governor's sug- gestion. The influence of Capt. John Harrison, the agent to Sallee, would be an explanation, if indeed he was a relative. Harvey was a military eharacter, and bore, like John Harrison, the title of "Captain," receiving knighthood on being appointed Governor. They probably met before Harvey sailed, which was subsequent to August 13, 1629; for Harrison made a petition on September 20. The time of Benjamin Harrison's appointment is calculated from the statement that he served several years.
On March 15, 1633 or '34, he certified to the copy of Abraham Piersey's will, signing himself ."Ben Harrison, Clee. Con." In Deeember, 1634, Richard Kemp, duly commissioned secretary, arrived. There are no wills on record in the Bermudas prior to 1660. There is none of any Benjamin Harrison afterwards.
The earliest acquisition of land in Virginia by the emigrant was by deed from John Davis, of Kiskiake, dated July 9, in ninth year of King Charles I, for 200 acres on Warrosquisake Creek, which, in a patent for it dated July 7, 1635, was said to be in the tenure of Thomas Jordan. Other patents followed, but "Berkeley" and "Brandon," the celebrated seats of the family on the James River, were acquired by later generations: "Brandon," as far as I can tell, by the emigrant's son; "Berkeley," by the first Harri- son, styled "of Berkeley" in the chart, who may have inherited it through his maternal line. The operation of a mill probably made the emigrant's son a richer man than if he had been a mere planter.
Benjamin of "Berkeley" was rich, independently of his father, in whose lifetime he died, possessed of large tracts of land.
The first Harrison appears to have left but two ehildren sur- viving him: Benjamin and Peter, both by his wife Mary, who
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afterwards married Benjamin Sidway, and as in a patent, dated October 9, 1649, it is reeited that 500 aeres granted to Benjamin Harrison, deceased, on March 21, 1643, were due to Benjamin, Jr., as "his son and heir," we eonelude, the law of primogeniture being in foree, that Benjamin2 was the eldest son, and that the property belonging to Peter in his minority was not inherited, but devised to him, probably by his father, whose will has not been found. On January 16, 1652, Benjamin Sidway, by order of the Court, conveyed certain land belonging to "Peter Harrison, orphan of Benjamin Harrison." In a patent dated 1655, quoted by "The Critie," published in Richmond, eertain land is said to adjoin that of "Peter Harrison, son of Benjamin Harrison, deceased, and son- in-law of Captain Sidney," the last word being doubtless "Sidway."
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