William Marshall (1767–1816), attorney and federal court clerk, was a native of Fauquier County and the younger brother of John Marshall, fourth chief justice of the United States. He moved to Richmond and served as the clerk of the United States Circuit Court for the fifth circuit from its establishment in 1790 until his death in that city. He also opened a law practice, served as commonwealth’s deputy attorney by 1792 and subsequently as commonwealth’s attorney, and sat on the vestry of Monumental Church. At the time of his death Marshall owned a house and numerous lots in Richmond, a plantation in Frederick County, land in Kanawha County (now West Virginia), and tracts in Kentucky. His personal estate included at least twenty-four slaves and was valued in excess of $14,500 (Frances Norton Mason, My dearest Polly: Letters of Chief Justice John Marshall to His Wife … 1779–1831 [1961], 26, 350; PTJ description begins Julian P. Boyd, Charles T. Cullen, John Catanzariti, Barbara B. Oberg, and others, eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 1950– , 34 vols. description ends , 15:647, 29:196–7; CVSP description begins William P. Palmer and others, eds., Calendar of Virginia State Papers … Preserved in the Capitol at Richmond, 1875–93, 11 vols. description ends , 5:622–3; Richmond Enquirer, 19 Apr. 1805, 20 Feb. 1810; TJ to Marshall, 7 Feb. 1816; Richmond Enquirer, 29 May 1816; Richmond City Hustings Court Will Book, 2:58–9, 118–20, 130–8, 154–7).

In his 27 July 1812 reply from the federal court office in Richmond on behalf of Marshall, deputy clerk Alexander Lithgow enclosed the requested information, stating that “Yours was recd and accordingly you have a copy of the order you wishd with the costs, and the Security for the payment of them thereon” (RC in MoSHi: TJC-BC, in Lithgow’s hand and signed by him as a letter “for Will Marshall clk”; endorsed by TJ as a letter from Lithgow received 31 July and so recorded in SJL). The “order” enclosed therein, which listed the costs as $22.44 and their security as John Wickham, is the DLC Tr of the 5 Dec. 1811 decision of the United States Circuit Court printed at 4 Dec. 1811 as the last in a group of documents on the dismissal of Livingston v. Jefferson.