Born in Edinburgh, where he studied before enrolling at the Royal Academy Schools in 1834, Marshall subsequently spent two years in Rome. In 1844 he won commissions for statues for the newly rebuilt Palace of Westminster and subsequently won many other public commissions. In 1864 he was commissioned to produce the group personifying Agriculture on the Albert Memorial, Kensington. He exhibited extensively and his literary subjects, in particular, were frequently reproduced in parian porcelain for the Art Unions.