John Marshall Receives Virginia Land from His Dad During Rev War

In the interesting string of assignments on the verso of this land warrant, original warrantee Samuel Beall transmits the 1,000 acres he had purchased three months earlier to Thomas Marshall in January 1780. Marshall, in turn, transmits the warrant to his son John Marshall in October 1782. Nine months later, the younger Marshall asks that an exchange warrant be issued to his father for 500 acres remaining in the warrant.

Samuel Beall (1748-1793) was a prominent merchant in Williamsburg, Virginia, who speculated extensively in land, especially in Kentucky. Among other purchases, he received a land grant for 40,000 acres in Jefferson County, Kentucky, in partnership with John May.

The land warrant is also signed by John Harvie Jr., a Founding Father from Virginia who signed the Articles of Confederation.

JOHN MARSHALL, Autograph Endorsement Signed, June 18, 1783, [Richmond, Virginia]. 2 pp., 8.125" x 6.5". Original wax seal present; edge tears; expected folds; very good.

Complete Transcript

"Land-Office Treasury WARRANT, No. 1282
To the principal Surveyor of any County within the Commonwealth of Virginia.
This shall be your WARRANT to Survey and lay off in one or more Surveys, for Saml Beall his Heirs or Assigns, the Quantity of One thousand Acres of Land, due unto the said Saml Beall in Consideration of the Sum of Four hundred pounds current Money paid into the publick Treasury; the Payment whereof to the Treasurer hath been duly certified by the Auditors of publick Accounts, and their Certificate received into the Land Office. GIVEN under my Hand, and the Seal of the said Office, on this Fifteenth Day of October in the Year One Thousand Seven Hundred and Seventy Nine.
John Harvie Re. L: Off

[Endorsements on verso:]

I, Samuel Beall for and in consideration of the Sum of Six hundred pound Virginia Currency, do assign the within warrant to Thomas Marshal Esq. his heirs and assigns. Witness my hand this 19th Jany. 1780
Samuel Beall

I Thomas Marshall for & in consideration of the natural Love I have and do bear to my son John Marshall do assign & make over to the said John all my right & title to the within warrant to the said John his heirs & assigns. Witness my hand this 9th of Octr 1782
Thom Marshall

Sir / you will please to issue an exchange warrant in the name of Thomas Marshall for five hundred acres of Land the quantity which remains due on this warrant
John Marshall
June 18th 1783."

John Marshall (1755-1835) was born in Fauquier County on the Virginia frontier and studied law on his own as a young man. He served in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War and rose to the position of captain in a Virginia regiment. After the war, he studied law with George Wythe at the College of William and Mary and was admitted to the bar in 1780. He married Mary "Polly" Willis Ambler (1766-1831) in 1783, and they had ten children, six of whom survived to adulthood. He served in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1782 to 1789 and again from 1795 to 1796. He built a home in Richmond, Virginia, in 1790, where he often returned for relaxation. He was a member of the Virginia convention to ratify the U.S. Constitution, which he strongly supported. He served as one of three commissioners appointed by President John Adams to negotiate with France in 1797, which devolved into the XYZ Affair when Marshall and the other commissioners refused to pay bribes to the French. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1799, and in 1800, Adams appointed him as Secretary of State. In 1801, Adams nominated him as Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, a position he held until his death 34 years later. During his tenure, he participated in more than 1,000 decisions and wrote 519 opinions himself. His powerful opinions in pivotal cases established the U.S. Supreme Court as the final authority on the meaning of the Constitution.

Thomas Marshall (1730-1802) was born in Virginia to a planter and his wife. He attended a local private school and was qualified as a surveyor by the Virginia government. In 1754, he married Mary Randolph Keith, the daughter of an Episcopal clergyman and his wife from the Randolph family of Virginia. They had fifteen children, of whom the most prominent was future Chief Justice John Marshall, though four other sons also became attorneys. Thomas Marshall conducted surveying expeditions with George Washington for Lord Fairfax and others. He served as a lieutenant in the Virginia militia during the French and Indian War and participated in the Braddock Expedition. He represented Fauquier County in the Virginia House of Burgesses from 1761 to 1768 and again from 1769 to 1773. He also represented Fauquier County in the first four Virginia Revolutionary Conventions. During the Revolutionary War, he served as colonel of the 3rd Virginia Regiment, which performed well in the Battles of Brandywine and Germantown. Ordered to the south, Marshall was part of the forces surrendered by General Benjamin Lincoln at Charleston in 1780. Three years later, he was appointed surveyor general of lands in Kentucky due to officers and soldiers of Virginia's Continental Line. In 1787 and 1788, voters in Fayette County, Kentucky, elected him to the Virginia House of Delegates. In 1791, President George Washington appointed Marshall as collector of revenue for Kentucky.

John Harvie Jr. (1742-1807) was born in Virginia to Scottish immigrant John Harvie Sr. (1706-1767). His father became Thomas Jefferson's legal guardian after Peter Jefferson died in 1757. John Harvie was a close friend of Thomas Jefferson and Robert Morris. He became a lawyer and settled in Augusta County. In 1767, he inherited Belmont Plantation from his father. He served as one of the first directors of the Bank of Virginia and built a successful law practice. When Governor Dunmore dissolved the House of Burgesses, voters elected Harvie to the five Virginia Revolutionary Conventions in 1775 and 1776. His fellow legislators elected Harvie to the Second Continental Congress, where he signed the Articles of Confederation for Virginia in July 1778. During the Revolutionary War, he was a colonel in the Virginia militia, and he purchased and organized supplies for the Virginia militia and Virginia regiments in the Continental Army. In 1780, he was appointed as registrar of the Land Office, and he moved to Richmond, where his office was responsible for transactions in the Northwest Territory, western Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky. He also served as mayor of Richmond from 1785 to 1786. Harvie owned several large estates and more than a dozen enslaved African Americans.

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