Source – Entry #16 in Paxton’s Marshall Family (written circa. 1885)
Col. Thomas Marshall was b. in Washington parish, Westmoreland Co., Va., April 2, 1730 ; -d. in Washington, Mason Co., Ky., June 22, 1802; 1754 in Fauquier Co., Va., Mary Randolph Keith, b. in Fauquier Co., Va., April 28, 1737 ; -d. Mason Co., Ky., Sept. 19, 1809.
Col. Marshall is regarded by his posterity with veneration. In sound judgment and depth of native mind he is said to have surpassed all his illustrious children. They, themselves, admitted his superiority of intellect. His posterity are thought to have inherited their mental powers rather from the Markhams and the Marshalls, than from the Keiths.
Col. Marshall is said to have attended, with. George Washington, the school of Rev. Archibald Campbell, rector of Washington parish. Here commenced the intimate friendship that continued through life, between Col. Marshall, and the great apostle of liberty. Well instructed and experienced in the surveyors art, he often attended Washington in his surveying excursions for Lord Fairfax and others. For these services he received several thousand acres of wild land in Henry Co., W. Va., which were sold and divided among his heirs, as provided in his will.
During the French war, he was a Lieutenant of Volunteers. He was not at Braddock’s defeat, because he was left behind, employed in building Fort Necessity.
His father died in April 1752, and Mr. Marshall, being the oldest son and the heir, qualified as his executor. His brother John, though also appointed an executor, was too young to serve. Shortly after the death of John Marshall of the” Forest,” the Marshalls, with their relatives, the Smiths, removed to the vicinity of Germantown, Fauquier Co., Va. Here Thomas accepted the agency, of Lord Fairfax, to superintend his immense landed estate, to make leases, collect rents, etc.
In 1754, he married. Mary Isham Keith, daughter of Rev. James Keith and Mary Randolph. Near Germantown his older children were born. In 1765, eleven years after his marriage, he purchased of Thos. L. and R. H. Lee, 350 acres of land on Goose Creek, and removed upon it. His old log house still stands a mile north-east of Markham. In 1773, he sold his farm; and it was, perhaps, at this time that he purchased ” Oak hill,” or, as he calls it in his will,” The Oaks.” Here he built a fine house of wood, which still remains ( 150 ). All his younger children were born here. His mother had attended him in all his removals. A little later she disappears, and it is probable she was laid in the graveyard near Germantown, known as “Locust Leavel,” where the Marshalls, Keiths and Smiths buried their dead.
In 1767, while residing on Goose Creek, he was High Sheriff’ of Fauquier County. His bond as such still appears of record.