US Congressman, Lawyer, Judge. He was a United States Representative from the State of Kentucky. He was born one of three children as Thomas Alexander Marshall to United States Representative and United States Senator Humphrey Marshall (1760-1841), and his wife Mary Ann Marshall (1757-1827), in Versailles, Kentucky, on January 15, 1794. He was educated locally and pursued preparatory studies before attending and graduating from the prestigious Yale College in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1815. He then studied law and was admitted to the bar, and then commenced his practice of law in Frankfort, Kentucky, in 1817. He eventually relocated to Paris, Kentucky, in 1819, and became interested in politics shortly thereafter. He was elected and served as a Member of the Kentucky State House of Representatives in 1827, and again in 1828. He then decided to run for a seat in the United States Congress and was elected to succeed the outgoing United States Representative Nicholas Daniel Coleman (1800-1874), on March 4, 1831. A Member of the National Republican Party, he then served Kentucky's 2nd District (Twenty-Second Congress), as an Anti-Jacksonian in the United States House of Representatives from March 4, 1831, to March 3, 1833. He was originally elected in 1831, but the 2nd District (Twenty-Second Congress), was later made an obsolete district when it was redistricted to the 12th District (Twenty-Third Congress). Following his first term in the United States Congress, he was succeeded in office by the incoming United States Representative Albert Gallatin Hawes (1804-1849), on March 4, 1831. He then decided to run for a second term in the United States Congress following the redistricting of the 2nd District (Twenty-Second Congress), to the 12th District (Twenty-Third Congress), and he was elected to succeed the outgoing United States Representative Chittenden Lyon (1787-1842), on March 4, 1833. A Member of the National Republican Party, he then served Kentucky's 12th District (Twenty-Third Congress), as an Anti-Jacksonian in the United States House of Representatives from March 4, 1833, to March 3, 1835. He was an unsuccessful Candidate for reelection to represent the Twenty-Fourth Congress in 1834. Following his second term in the United States Congress, he was succeeded in office by the incoming United States Representative John Chambers (1780-1852), on March 4, 1835. He then became a State Court Judge and served as a Justice of the State Court of Appeals from 1835 to 1856, having been preceded by Samuel S. Nicholas and succeeded by Alvin Duvall. During this time, he also became a Professor in the law department of the prestigious Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky, and served in that position from 1836 to 1849, and served his first term as the Chief Justice of the Kentucky State Court of Appeals from 1847 to 1851, and his second term as the Chief Justice of the Kentucky State Court of Appeals from 1854 to 1856. He then moved to Louisville, Kentucky, in 1859, and was elected and served another term as a Member of the Kentucky State House of Representatives from 1863 to 1864. He then served a third term as the Chief Justice of the Kentucky Court of Appeals from 1866 to 1867. During his three terms as the Chief Justice of the Kentucky State Court of Appeals, he was preceded by Iphraim M. Ewing, Elijah Hise (1802-1867), and Belvard J. Peters, and succeeded by James Simpson, B. Mills Crenshaw, and Belvard J. Peters. Following his final term as the Chief Justice of the Kentucky State Court of Appeals he retired and resumed his practice of law until his death. He passed away from pneumonia in Louisville, Kentucky, on April 17, 1871, at the age of 77, and he was buried in The Lexington Cemetery in Lexington, Kentucky. At the time of death, he was remembered as one the foremost jurists to come out of the State of Kentucky. He had served more than forty years in public office, and more than twenty years as a judge of the court. He was married to Eliza Price Marshall (1795-1875), on November 26, 1816, with whom he had five children Thomas Alexander Marshall Jr. (1817-1873), Anna Marshall (1819-), Charles Sims Marshall (1821-), John Hart Marshall (1822-1856), Humphrey Marshall (1824-), and Eliza Nannette Marshall (1837-). He was also the grandfather of United States Representative Humphrey Marshall (1812-1872), first cousin and brother-in-law of John Marshall (1755-1835), James Markham Marshall (1764-1848), and Alexander Keith Marshall (1770-1825), first cousin once removed and uncle by marriage of Edward Colston (1786-1852), Thomas Francis Marshall (1801-1864), Alexander Keith Marshall (1808-1884), Charles Alexander Marshall (1809-), and Edward Colston Marshall (1821-1893).