Supreme House for a Supreme Justice

It occurs to me that we may have John Marshall to thank in part for the current situation our country's judicial system is in, where judges reign supreme. For it was he who gave the courts some real power by establishing the principle of judicial review in cases like Marbury v. Madison. . .

But enough of the history lesson. On Friday I had the opportunity to ride with the post-Revolutionary class to Richmond and see John Marshall's house. He had quite the rags to riches story. The eldest of fifteen children (who all survived to adulthood, a remarkable fact in the eighteenth century), he had little money to his name when he first started out, but quickly became very wealthy, in part thanks to his law practice. He had a large house built in Richmond, and later an office building next door that housed his practice. Though the house was not quite on the same scale as the Lee's, it was bigger than anything I'll likely own this side of heaven. That it was built with brick in the mid-eighteenth century speaks to its wealth. Marshall also had a black house servant, which further suggests his affluence.

Other interesting details about Marshall and family: he was a tall man, about 6' 2". His wife, Mary Ambler, was a slender creature, and only about 4'10". Despite her delicate condition, they had 10 children, and 6 of them survived to adulthood. Marshall didn't marry until age 27. So Kristi, maybe the postponement of marriage is a cyclical trend of some sort. Back then men didn't marry until they had some means to support a family, which explains his late marriage. His wife was 11 years his junior, came from a wealthy family, and apparently had no qualms about marrying at 16. This may seem early, but the subject of my master's thesis, who lived roughly in the same place and time, actually married at 13 or 14. So in comparison 16 seems almost spinsterly.