James Markham Marshall

James Markham Marshall (March 12, 1764 – April 26, 1848) was a United States federal judge.

Biography
Born in Fauquier County, Virginia, he was the son of Thomas Marshall, and brother of U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall. He was educated at home. In 1779, at age 15, Marshall joined the Continental Army as a private, and that year became a captain in the 1st Virginia Artillery.

Marshall went to Kentucky with his father in 1785 and bore a conspicuous part in the discussions concerning the “Spanish conspiracy.” His statement that Gardoqui, the Spanish minister at Washington, had been in communication with John Brown looking to the withdrawal of Kentucky from the United States, was bitterly denounced by James Brown, afterward minister to France, which led to a challenge from Marshall, but the duel was prevented after the parties reached the dueling ground. He went into private practice in Fayette County, Kentucky, in 1788.

During the Reign of Terror, Marshall was in France as the commercial agent of New York City, Boston, and Charleston. He was also employed by George Washington as the agent of the United States to negotiate for the release of the Marquis de Lafayette, who was then a prisoner in Austria. While in England, Marshall negotiated for the purchase of the Fairfax estates in the northern neck of Virginia, and he and his brother John received all the lands in “Leeds Manor.” Marshall returned to Virginia in 1795, and soon afterward married Hester, daughter of Robert Morris, the financier of the American Revolution.

He was in private practice in Alexandria, Virginia, by 1801. On February 28, 1801, Marshall was nominated by President John Adams to a new seat as a judge in the United States Circuit Court of the District of Columbia created by 2 Stat. 103. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on March 3, 1801, and received his commission the same day. He resigned from this position on November 16, 1803. He resumed a private practice in Winchester, Virginia from 1803 to 1848. Marshall died in Fauquier County, Virginia.