LOVE AND WAR

Mary Willis Ambler, always called Polly, was just shy of her fourteenth birthday when she went to her first ball in Yorktown in 1780, but she already had set her cap for the ruggedly handsome guest of honour, twenty-four-old Captain John Marshall. She told the other girls, including her elder sister, who were organizing the ball that they were giving themselves useless trouble in vying for his attention because he was going to marry her. The Captain who had grown up on the frontier was immediately captivated by the dark-haired beauty from one of tidewater’s most prominent families who was openly flirting with him. Their instant romance was to become legendary. Captain Marshall, a veteran of five year’s service in the Continental Army, was on extended leave to come to Virginia to recruit and to try to convince the Governor of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson, to send more troops to General Washington’s Army. The battles were being fought out of Virginia in 1780, but this situation would change dramatically in 1781. After reporting to the Governor in Williamsburg, John Marshall travelled to Yorktown to see his father who was the Commander of the artillery regiment stationed there, known as “Marshall’s Artillery. The Virginia government relocated from Williamsburg to Richmond in 1780. Richmond, at the Fall Line of the James River, was a more central location for the capital of the largest and most populous state in the union that stretched all the way to the Mississippi River. Polly’s father, Jaquelin Ambler, the Treasurer of Virginia, moved his family to one of the small bungalows built by enterprising Scots to house the incoming legislators. The state of Virginia had been spared from the war’s devastation since the battle of Great Bridge in 1775 and the burning of Norfolk on New Year’s Day, 1776. But British General Charles Cornwallis’s new strategy was to disrupt the supply routes through Virginia and cut the colonies in half. The American traitor, Benedict Arnold who was now a British General, led a successful raid early in 1781 and burned most of Richmond’s business district. He would be back in April. Colonel Banastre Tarlton’s Calvary chased the Virginia Legislature to Charlottesville, almost capturing Governor Jefferson, while Cornwallis’s Army ravaged central Virginia. Then Cornwallis made the fateful decision to head to Yorktown for winter quarters. The British Army felt safe with their backs to the water because of their powerful navy. Meanwhile, a large French Fleet under the Comte de Grasse had sailed up from the West Indies for combined operations with the allied French and American Armies and proceeded to blockade the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, cutting off Cornwallis from help or escape by sea. After the surrender of Cornwallis in Yorktown, the Virginia Courts reopened, and John Marshall saw his future prospects for making a living greatly enhanced. He was elected to his father’s old seat in the Virginia Legislature from Fauquier County, and, returning to Richmond in 1782, he set about establishing a law practice. He waited for Polly to reach the marriageable age of sixteen before proposing. The nervous young girl said “no” when she really meant “yes”. The dejected suitor departed, and Polly’s cousin, John Ambler, came to see why she was crying. Taking charge of the situation, he snipped a lock of Polly’s hair and chased after Marshall who got the message and came back. When they were married he gave her a gold locket with her lock of hair intertwined with one of his. They were married on January 3, 1783 at The Cottage in Hanover County, the home of Polly’s cousin. Most weddings took place at home during the colonial period, but the small bungalow in Richmond that the Amblers rented was not large enough the affair. The newly-weds rented a cottage on Fourth Street just behind the bungalow that her parents rented on Fifth Street. According to accounts of the period, Polly was John’s closest confidant and advisor. He said that “she shared his every thought and that her judgement was so safe and sound” that he never regretted following her advice in perplexing situations. In describing her, he said that to her “attractive person” she added uncommonly pleasing manners and that “though serious as well as gentle she possessed a good deal of chaste and delicate wit.” Women, who were not able to vote until the 19th amendment was passed in 1920, used their influence during the 18th and 19th centuries to promote religious and charitable enterprises and often petitioned the government for various causes. In 1788, John Marshall bought a square (four lots) in the fashionable residential area on Shockoe Hill and started to build the house that he had promised Polly. The brick federal-style house would be their home for the rest of their lives. Dependencies included a law office, a detached kitchen, a laundry, and a small cabin for the servant couple, and in the far corner, a stable. Many of their friends and relatives and relatives were nearby and these properties were called “plantations-in-town”. By the end of the decade, Marshall’s law practice placed him at the top of the bar in Richmond, and he was prevailed upon to run for Congress after serving as Envoy to France in the XYZ affair. After he had served one term in Congress, President John Adams appointed him to the post of Secretary of State, and, in the waning days of his administration, Adams appointed Marshall as Chief Justice of the United States. Adams had lost his bid for re-election in December 1800, but the campaign was not over because Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr had received the same number of electoral votes thereby throwing the election into the House of Representatives for a decision. On the thirty-sixth ballot, the tie in the House of Representatives was broken, and Thomas Jefferson became the third President of the United States. With the Federalists still in control of Congress until the inauguration of Jefferson, Adams and Marshall worked diligently to appoint as many Federalist judges as they could, often keeping Congress in session well into the night to confirm them. Years later John Adams would write that “the proudest act of my life was the gift of John Marshall to the people of the United States”. When he took the oath of office of Chief Justice, John Marshall was forty-five years old, and he would serve for the next thirty-four years during the administrations of Presidents Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, John Quincy Adams, and Andrew Jackson. John Marshall would be the country’s longest serving and most influential Chief Justice. In 1803, in the landmark decision of Marbury versus Madison, the court ruled that any law passed by Congress was subject to review by the Supreme Court, thereby making the court the ultimate definer of the Constitution. The Supreme Court met for approximately two months annually, but the justices were also required to sit at circuit courts in their district. For Marshall this meant the circuit court in Richmond and two yearly trips to Raleigh, North Carolina. Returning to Richmond, he began writing a five-volume biography of George Washington. The former President’s papers had been bequeathed to his nephew, Bushrod, but the latter’s eyesight was failing, and he persuaded Marshall to take on the project. With extensive land holdings acquired through his purchase of the Fairfax estate in Virginia’s northern neck, John became seriously interested in farming. He and Polly and their children spent summer vacations at Oak Hill in Fauquier County and at their farm outside of Richmond on the Chickahominy River. The Marshalls raised six children but the death of four others caused their mother to suffer periods of depression. The emotional well-being of wives constantly pregnant during their child-bearing years was not understood by doctors of that period. Historians have noted that many women welcomed menopaus