Marshall Family

 My earliest proven Marshall ancestor is Elizabeth/Betsy Marshall who married Spencer Pinkard 30 August 1799 in Culpeper County, Virginia.  The proof that Elizabeth is my ancestor is found in a friendly chancery case in Culpeper County in which ....well here is link to my blog post when I first read this chancery case:

http://marshamoses.blogspot.com/2015/01/spencer-and-elizabeth-pinkard-of.html

I feel a close tie to Betsy Marshall Pinkard as I am quite sure I am named after her.  My name is the female version of Marshall (my father's name).  And my dad was name after his grandfather, Jesse Marshall Hawkins who in turn was certainly name after his gr-grandmother, Betsy Marshall Pinkard.  Why do I not know more about Betsy's family?

What have I collected in my files and piles?  From a book that I read in the Boyd County Library called Faquer Families Vol 2 by John P. Alcock I find a Thomas Marshall who was living in the new county of Fauquier when it was formed 24 May 1759 from Prince William County.  Thomas is appointed to "take" the tithable from Mountain Church to the County line shared with Stafford County.  I do not know if this Thomas Marshall is kin to me, but I have to start somewhere.....and not willing to turn to Ancestry yet.  Two other men are appointed to "take" the tithables in the other directions,

The Mountain Church seemed to have been located where Warrenton, Virginia now stand before there was a town named Warrenton in that location.  A site on the internet says that Warrenton:  

At the time of the Revolution, a settlement had begun, and by 1790 the first courthouse was built

and

Warrenton had its origin at the junction of the Falmouth-Winchester and Alexandria-Culpeper roads, where a trading post known as the Red Store was established.

But at the time of the formation of Fauquier, Warrenton did not yet exist.  Thomas Marshall turned in 1013 tithables for his part of the new county.  The Fauquier County book explains that the church was about 3 miles south of the center of today's Warrenton.

So on the above map, you can see that Thomas Marshall was responsible for "taking" the name of the heads of families starting about where Warrenton is today (middle of the county) and going southeast to Stafford County's boundary.  I have also copied a map that shows where Chief Justice John Marshall lived and it is very close to where the town of Marshall is located today not the northern part of the County.  But remember that Chief Justice John Marshall was a small child of only 3 or 4 at this time as he was born in 1755 in Germantown, Virginia.  

Wikipedia says: Marshall was born on September 24, 1755, in a log cabin in Germantown,^[2] a rural community on the Virginia frontier, near present-day Midland, Fauquier County. In the mid-1760s, the Marshalls moved northwest to the present-day site of Markham, Virginia.^[3] His parents were Thomas Marshall and Mary Randolph Keith... Thomas Marshall was employed in Fauquier County as a surveyor and land agent by Lord Fairfax, which provided him with a substantial income.^[4] Nonetheless, John Marshall grew up in a two-room log cabin, which he shared with his parents and several siblings; Marshall was the oldest of fifteen sibling

So it would seem likely that this Thomas Marshall is likely to have been the father of Chief Justice John Marshall.  He is living in the right place and his employment would have made him a likely candidate for "taking" the tithables in the southeaster part of the new County.  And his home in Midland would have made it appropriate for having taken then names of his own neighbors in the area.

As you can see from the below map, Markham is northwest of present day Warrenton rather than Southeast of present day Warrenton where John Marshall was born.  Markham is located near a gap in the mountans that I-66 travels through on it's way to DC.  But the Marshall family still resided in Fauquier County.

Well my next question is who were the siblings of John Marshall?  All of the accounts say that Chief John Marshall was the oldest of 15 children born to Thomas Marshall and hs wife, Mary Randolph Keith.  And again, I prefer to use historical articles rather than Ancestry for this answer.

James Markham Marshall b. 1764  Lucy Marshall

Charles Marshall b. 1767

• COLONIAL FAMILIES OF THE Southern States of America,"THE PICKETTS OF FAUQUIER",p417 [5--1A. Lucy, b. May 2, 1767; d. 1825; married Sept. 13, 1787, Hon. Charles Marshall, of Warrenton, Va., who was born Jan. 31, 1767 son of Col. Thomas and Mary Randolph (Keith) Marshall, of "Oak Hill; had issue and died 1805].

Lucy Marshall born c. 1768  married John Cary Ambler and died young after two children were born

OK....I give up ....no wonder I have never nailed down Betsy Marshall Pinkard's connections.  This was very interesting!  I liked knowing about Chief Justice John Marshall's early year.  But I am going to see if I can make my hunt a bit easier.