Volume I Part 8 (1/2)

[165] James Thompson was born in 1739. (Meade, ii, 219.)

[166] _Ib._

[167] Forty years later La Rochefoucauld found that the whole family and all visitors slept in the same room of the cabins of the back country.

(La Rochefoucauld, iv, 595-96.)

[168] ”I have not sleep'd above three nights or four in a bed, but, after walking ... all the day, I lay down before the fire upon a little hay, straw, fodder or bearskin ... with man, wife, and children, like a parcel of dogs and cats; and happy is he, who gets the berth nearest the fire.” (Was.h.i.+ngton to a friend, in 1748; _Writings_: Ford, i, 7.)

Here is another of Was.h.i.+ngton's descriptions of frontier comforts: ”I not being so good a woodsman as ye rest of my company, striped myself very orderly and went into ye Bed, as they calld it, when to my surprize, I found it to be nothing but a little straw matted together without sheets or any thing else, but only one thread bear [_sic_]

blanket with double its weight of vermin such as Lice, Fleas, &c.”

(Was.h.i.+ngton's _Diary_, March 15, 1747; _ib._, 2.) And see La Rochefoucauld, iii, 175, for description of homes of farmers in the Valley forty years later--miserable log huts ”which swarmed with children.” Thomas Marshall's little house was much better than, and the manners of the family were far superior to, those described by Was.h.i.+ngton and La Rochefoucauld.

[169] Meade, ii, 219.

[170] _Ib._ Bishop Meade says that Thomas Marshall's sons were sent to Mr. Thompson again; but Marshall himself told Justice Story that the Scotch parson taught him when the clergyman lived at his father's house.

[171] Meade, ii, 219. This extract of Mr. Thompson's sermon was treasonable from the Tory point of view. See _infra_, chap. III.

[172] Records of Fauquier County (Va.), Deed Book, V, 282. This purchase made Thomas Marshall the owner of about two thousand acres of the best land in Fauquier County. He had sold his Goose Creek holding in ”The Hollow.”

[173] The local legend, current to the present day, is that this house had the first gla.s.s windows in that region, and that the bricks in the chimney were imported from England. The importation of brick, however, is doubtful. Very little brick was brought to Virginia from England.

[174] Five more children of Thomas and Mary Marshall were born in this house: Louis, 1773; Susan, 1775; Charlotte, 1777; Jane, 1779; and Nancy, 1781. (Paxton.)

[175] This volume is now in the possession of Judge J. K. M. Norton, of Alexandria, Va. On several leaves are printed the names of the subscribers. Among them are Pelatiah Webster, James Wilson, Nathanael Greene, John Adams, and others.

[176] _Autobiography._

[177] Binney, in Dillon, iii, 286.

[178] Story and Binney say that Marshall's first schooling was at Campbell's ”academy” and his second and private instruction under Mr.

Thompson. The reverse seems to have been the case.

[179] Meade, ii, 159, and footnote to 160.

[180] _Ib._, 161.

[181] _Ib._

[182] Journal, H.B. (1761-65), 3. Thomas Marshall was seldom out of office. Burgess, Sheriff, Vestryman, Clerk, were the promising beginnings of his crowded office-holding career. He became Surveyor of Fayette County, Kentucky, upon his removal to that district, and afterwards Collector of Revenue for the District of Ohio. (Humphrey Marshall, i, 120; and see ii, chap. V, of this work. Thomas Marshall to Adams, April 28, 1797; MS.) In holding offices, John Marshall followed in his father's footsteps.

[183] Journal, H.B. (1766-69), 147 and 257.

[184] His election was contested in the House, but decided in Marshall's favor. (_Ib._ (1761-69), 272, 290, 291.)

[185] _Ib._, (1773-76), 9. County Clerks were then appointed by the Secretary of State. In some respects the Clerk of the County Court had greater advantages than the Sheriff. (See Bruce: _Inst._, i, 588 _et seq._) Dunmore County is now Shenandoah County. The Revolution changed the name. When Thomas Marshall was appointed Clerk, the House of Burgesses asked the Governor to issue a writ for a new election in Fauquier County to fill Marshall's place as Burgess. (_Ib._ (1773-76), 9.)

[186] _Ib._ (1766-69), 163.

[187] _Ib._, 16, 71, 257; (1770-72), 17, 62, 123, 147, 204, 234, 251, 257, 274, 292; (1773-76), 217, 240.