Francis Scott Key
Francis Scott Key (
August 1,
1779 –
January 11,
1843) was an
American lawyer and amateur
poet who wrote the words to the United States
national anthem, "
The Star-Spangled Banner".
He was born to Ann Louis Penn Dagworthy (Charlton) and Capt
John Ross Key at the family plantation Terra Rubra near
Keymar, Maryland. He was an alumnus of
St. John's College,
Annapolis, Maryland.
During the
War of 1812, Key, accompanied by the American Prisoner Exchange Agent Col. John Stuart Skinner, dined aboard the British ship HMS
Tonnant, as the guests of Vice Adm. Cochrane, RAdm. Sir George Cockburn and Major General Robert Ross. They were there to negotiate the release of a prisoner, Dr. William Beanes. A resident of Upper Marlboro, Maryland, Beanes had been captured by the British after he placed rowdy stragglers under citizen's arrest. Skinner, Key and Beanes were allowed to return to their own sloop, but were not allowed to return to Baltimore because they had become familiar with the strength and position of the British units and of the British intention to attack Baltimore. As a result of this, Key was unable to do anything but watch the bombarding of Ft. McHenry during the
Battle of Baltimore, and was inspired to write a poem describing the experience. Entitled "The Defence of Fort McHenry", intended to fit the rhythms of
composer John Stafford Smith's "
To Anacreon in Heaven", it has become better known as "The
Star Spangled Banner". Under this name, the song was adopted as the American national anthem by a Congressional resolution in
1931, signed by President
Herbert Hoover.
In 1832, Key served as the attorney for
Sam Houston during his trial in the
US House of Representatives for assaulting another Congressman
[Sam Houston. Handbook of Texas Online. ].
In 1835 Key prosecuted
Richard Lawrence for his unsuccessful attempt to assassinate
President of the United States Andrew Jackson.
Key was a distant cousin and the namesake of
F. Scott Fitzgerald whose full name was Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald. His direct descendants include geneticist
Thomas Hunt Morgan, guitarist
Dana Key, and the American fashion designer and socialite
Pauline de Rothschild.
Key died at the home of his daughter Elizabeth, and her husband Charles Howard, in
Baltimore from
pleurisy. On the site of the Howard mansion is now the Mount Vernon United Methodist Church. He was initially interred in
Old Saint Paul's Cemetery in the vault of
John Eager Howard. He was later, in 1866, moved to his family plot in
Frederick at
Mount Olivet Cemetery. The Key Monument Association erected a memorial in 1898 and the remains of both Francis Scott Key and his wife Mary were placed in a crypt in the base of the monument.
|
The Howard family vault at Saint Paul's Cemetery, Baltimore, Maryland. |
The
Francis Scott Key Bridge between the
Rosslyn section of
Arlington County, Virginia, and
Georgetown in
Washington, D.C., and the
Francis Scott Key Bridge, part of the
Baltimore Beltway crossing the outer harbor of
Baltimore, Maryland, are named in his honor. Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge is located at the approximate point where the British anchored to shell
Fort McHenry.
Francis Scott Key was inducted into the
Songwriters' Hall of Fame in
1970.
Robert Altman credited him with the "title song" of
Brewster McCloud, though it contained only
John Stafford Smith's instrumentals.
*
Francis Scott Key's entry at the Songwriters' Hall of Fame*
Short biography*
Francis Scott Keys's biographic sketch at
Find A Grave
