John Marshall

(1755 - 1835)

The fourth chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court was born in a log cabin and later served under General George Washington in the American Revolution. John Marshall remains the longest-serving chief justice in American history, and he was responsible for granting the Supreme Court its power of judicial review in the seminal decision Marbury v. Madison. He also set a new trend in judicial fashion, trading brightly colored robes for a stark black number. His health failed after the death of his wife, and he died in 1835, after writing the inscription on his headstone: “Son of Thomas and Mary Marshall / was born September 24, 1755 / Intermarried with Mary Willis Ambler / the 3rd of January 1783 / Departed this life / the 6th day of July 1835.”