John w marshall biography

John Marshall, the nation's fourth chief justice, was among the first to study law at W&M

Just weeks before Thomas Jefferson was to begin his presidency in 1801, incumbent John Adams appointed John Marshall as the young nation’s fourth chief justice.

Generally considered to be the greatest jurist to fill that role, Marshall served under Jefferson, his political rival (and second cousin once removed), and four other presidents over the next three decades. Marshall studied law at William & Mary under the tutelage of George Wythe in 1780.

John w marshall biography

Marshall’s tenure here was brief but potent in forming the character of the person who would lay the foundations of American constitutional law.

Largely self-educated, Marshall was born on September 24, 1755, in what is now Fauquier County, in the foothills of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains.

He was the oldest of 15 children of Thomas Marshall and Mary Randolph Keith. In youth he ac