John Marshall, Chief Justice of the United States and a principal founder of judicial review and the American system of constitutional law, was born in a log cabin just east of here on September 24, 1755. At that time, the location was near Germantown, a frontier mining settlement in the western portion of Prince William County, which became part of Fauquier County in 1759. Marshall first served his country as one of the Culpeper Minutemen during the Revolutionary War. He studied law at the College of William and Mary and was admitted to the Fauquier County Bar in 1780. He was a member of the Virginia Assembly and the United States Congress. While serving as Secretary of State during the presidency of John Adams, he was appointed Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Marshall died on July 6, 1835, during the thirty-fifth year of his Chief Justiceship and the eightieth year of his life. It is believed that his joyful childhood, spent largely outdoors amid the simple conditions of the Virginia wilderness, helped give him the excellent health, strength of character, and serenity of mind that marked his honorable life as a frontiersman, soldier, diplomat, jurist, statesman, and lawyer.
