Humphrey Marshall (Senator)

Humphrey Marshall

Humphrey Marshall (* 1760 in Orlean , Fauquier County , Colony of Virginia ; †  3. July 1841 in Frankfort , Kentucky ) was an American politician of the Federalist Party , of the state of Kentucky in the US Senate represented.

Humphrey Marshall was well educated in his homeland. After the outbreak of the War of Independence , he joined the Continental Army and made it up to captain . In 1780 he moved to Kentucky County , later the state of Kentucky, which at that time was still part of Virginia. There he married his cousin Mary Marshall, the sister of the future US Secretary of State and chief federal judge John Marshall .

In 1788 he was a delegate to the Virginia Convention , which ratified the United States Constitution. After the founding of the state of Kentucky, he represented Woodford County in its parliament in 1793, before moving to the US Senate in 1795. The federalist Marshall stayed there until March 3, 1801. Politically, he was then still active as a member of the House of Representatives from Kentucky between 1807 and 1809 and in 1823.

On January 19, 1809, Humphrey Marshall denied a duel with Senator Henry Clay , who later became the leader of the Whig Party . The reason was apparently Clay's suggestion that Kentucky's MPs should not wear British but local textiles; Marshall rejected this. Both men were slightly wounded. Marshall later made a name for himself as the author of the first work on the history of Kentucky, published in Frankfort in 1812.

Humphrey Marshall was a member of a politically active family. His son Thomas Alexander Marshall , his nephew Thomas F. Marshall and his grandson Humphrey Marshall , who also served as a general in the Confederate Army in the Civil War, each represented the state of Kentucky in the US House of Representatives .

Web links

• Humphrey Marshall in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• Humphrey Marshall in the database of Find a Grave (English)