Robin Spurlock has had an almost legendary presence in the John Marshall House since the site opened to the public in 1913. Spurlock is one of the best documented enslaved individuals that worked at the Marshall house, and he regularly appears in Marshall family oral histories. Many references to Spurlock’s personality only appeared in the 1960s in a poorly-documented source: this article will only use sources from Spurlock’s life to tell his story with the utmost integrity.
The earliest references to Robin Spurlock are found in John Marshall’s June 1793 account book entry “mending shoes for Robin.” He appears again in May 1794, “shoes for Robin”.1 Both entries date to a few years after construction for the John Marshall House was completed.
Thirty-eight years later, in 1832, we see the only glimpse of Spurlock’s labor on-site. John Marshall’s sister Eliza Colston wrote a letter to her daughter, “I have not had your beds & boxes taken to your Uncles. I thought it might disturb her, but if the day is clear I will have them taken tomorrow & interest Robin to have them aired.”2
The traditional narrative is that Spurlock labored as a man-servant, body-servant, or butler: someone charged with close day-to-day assistance to Marshall who also likely had a public facing role.
Dr. McCaw’s 1834 accounts with “Chief Justice Marshall”3 show four visits that fall related to Spurlock.
September 27, 1834: “to visiting Robin Bleeding”
September 28, 1834: “to Robin Advice”
September 29, 1834: “Robin Advice”
October 4, 1834: “Robin visit”
The next summer, Marshall died; his 1832 will provided Spurlock with three options for his future:
“It is my wish to emancipate my faithful servant Robin and I direct his emancipation if he chuses to conform to the laws on that subject, requiring that he should leave the state or if permission can be obtained for his continuing, to reside in it. In the event of his going to Liberia I give him one hundred dollars, if he does not go thither I give him fifty-dollars. Should it be found impractible to liberate him consistently with law and his own inclination, I desire that he may choose his master among my sons, or if he prefer my daughter that he may be held in trust for her and her family as is the other property bequeathed in trust for her, and that he may be always treated as a faithful meritorious servant.”4
Virginia law required an enslaved person to have supportive letters and character references if they were to be freed; they were also required to leave the state. Marshall provided no letters for Spurlock, who also had no connections with people outside of Virginia. In the end, Spurlock chose to remain enslaved to Marshall’s daughter, Mary Marshall Harvie. His advanced age likely encouraged him to remain near his family and within his community.
After Marshall’s death several references indicate that the Marshall children gave Spurlock money (“paid old Robbin”)5 or settled accounts for him (“rent for Robin rooms”).6 A second bill for Dr. McCaw’s “bleeding” of Spurlock, dated December 26, 1835, hints at ongoing medical concerns.7 The rents paid for Robin’s accommodations tell us that he was living on his own, and although the precise site is unknown, the 1830 census records an elderly enslaved man living in Jefferson Ward (near modern-day Shockoe Slip, close to 15th Street), which could be Robin Spurlock.
The only other description of Spurlock comes from a 1845 newspaper article entitled “A Hint for the Abolitionists.” The article is mostly propaganda but includes key details from a visit Spurlock made to the Federal Circuit Court in Richmond. This is the only primary source description of Spurlock’s clothing: “a long black coat, small clothes and stockings, knee-buckles and other characteristics of fashion sixty years ago”8 (roughly five years before the John Marshall House was built).
The final primary source for Robin is in many ways the most poignant: Spurlock’s death record at First African Baptist Church, dated December 5, 1847 is the only mention of his surname from his lifetime.9
