Thursday, January 3 2008

John Marshall's red waistcoat

During the month of January, take a rare opportunity to view Polly Marshall's wedding dress and John Marshall's red waistcoat, as part of a small exhibit, at APVA Preservation Virginia's John Marshall House in celebration of their 225th wedding anniversary.

According to Jean Smith's biography, Definer of a Nation:

Marshall's courtship of Polly continued. Writing to his wife years later he recalled "our little tiffs & makings up, and all the thousand indescribable but deeply affecting instances of your affection or coldness which constituted for a time the happiness or misery of my life." Persistent family legend holds that when Marshall asked Polly to marry him, she refused. Marshall said good-bye, mounted his horse, and rode off in the direction of Fauquier County. Polly watched him go, and when he disappeared from sight, began weeping hysterically. Nothing could calm her. Her cousin, John Ambler, put his arm around her to console her and surreptitiously snipped a lock of her hair. He then excused himself, raced after Marshall, and gave him the lock. "My father," said Marshall's and Polly's youngest son, "supposing she had sent it, reviewed his suit and they were married." Polly afterward placed the snippet of hair in a locket and wore it around her neck for the rest of her life. When she died, Marshall took the locket and wore it until his death.

John Marshall was the Chief Justice of the United States from 1801-1835, molding the Supreme Court into the Constitutional Court we know it as today. From 1790-1835 he lived here in Richmond at what is today the APVA Preservation Virginia's John Marshall House.

The John Marshall House is located at 818 East Marshall Street at the corner of 9th and Marshall Streets. For further information regarding the John Marshall House go to http://www.apva.org/marshall/.

Press Contact:
Tina Calhoun
Director of Marketing and Public Relations
APVA Preservation Virginia
204 West Franklin Street
Richmond, VA 23220
804-648-1889 x. 316
tcalhoun@apva.org