Edward Carrington Marshall

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Edward Carrington Marshall (January 13, 1805 – February 8, 1882) was a Virginia farmer, planter, businessman, and politician. Born in Richmond, he was the youngest son of Chief Justice John Marshall and Mary Willis Ambler, and his names reflect Edward Carrington, the husband of John Marshall’s sister. He attended Harvard University, graduating in 1826—the only Marshall brother to complete college. In 1829 he married Rebecca Courtenay Peyton; they raised seven children, including James K. Marshall, who died fighting for the Confederacy at Gettysburg in 1863. Marshall farmed with enslaved labor. In his father’s will he was left Fauquier County land and enslaved people; by 1850 he owned 34 slaves, rising to 38 by 1860.

He served as a member of the Virginia House of Delegates for Fauquier County from 1836 to 1838. He later became president of the Manassas Gap Railroad, chartered in 1850. The line connected the Shenandoah Valley with the Piedmont and the ports of Alexandria and Richmond, and by 1854 ran from Mount Jackson to Manassas. The railway faced financing problems, and an alternate line toward Gainesville was delayed by landowner opposition and the Panic of 1857. During the Civil War, Confederate troops used the line, and portions were damaged. After the war, the enterprise was sold in 1867 to the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, which eventually became part of the Richmond and Danville system and later Southern Railway.

Marshall also served in the Washington pension office during the Grant and Hayes administrations. He built the home Innis in 1871–72 and remained active in farming and local life. He died at Innis in 1882 and was buried at Leeds Episcopal Church. Today, his homes Carrington and Innis survive as part of the John Marshall Leeds Manor Rural Historic District. Some of his correspondence is held by the Virginia Historical Society and the University of Virginia.