Francis Scott Key

• Born: 1 August 1779
• Birthplace: Terra Rubra (near Frederick), Maryland
• Died: 11 January 1843 (pleurisy)
• Best Known As: The attorney who wrote "The Star Spangled Banner"

Francis Scott Key wrote the words to "The Star-Spangled Banner," the national anthem of the United States of America. Key was born and raised in western Maryland. He became a lawyer, first in Frederick and then in what is now the Georgetown section of Washington, D.C. During the War of 1812, when it seemed likely that British forces would overtake Baltimore, Key travelled to Fort McHenry in September of 1814 to negotiate the release of Dr. William Beanes, who was being held captive by the British. Key succeeded in getting Beanes released, but was unable to leave, due to the British bombardment of the fort. During the bombardment Key was aboard a ship, some eight miles away, watching as the British shelled Fort McHenry. When the smoke cleared the next morning, Key was able to see the U.S. flag still flying at the fort (the specially-made flag was 30 feet high and 42 feet wide). Inspired by the sight, Key scribbled down a few poetic lines, which he later enhanced at a hotel in Baltimore. The poem, titled "Defence of Fort M'Henry," was widely circulated in newspapers throughout the U.S., then sung to the tune of an English song, "To Anacreon in Heaven." Popularly called "The Star-Spangled Banner," it was adopted on 3 March 1931 as the U.S. national anthem. Key went on to have a successful legal career, serving as a district attorney for Washington, D.C. for many years.

For more information on Francis Scott Key, visit Britannica.com.

Francis Scott Key (1779-1843) was a successful attorney and amateur poet whose one notable verse, "The Star-Spangled Banner," became the national anthem of the United States.

Poet and attorney Francis Scott Key was a witness to the relentless bombing of Baltimore's Fort McHenry by the British during the War of 1812. Inspired by the sight of the battered American flag that flew over the fort throughout the conflict, he penned the lines of the future national anthem of the United States on the back of an envelope. His poem, "The Star-Spangled Banner," soon appeared in newspapers across the country and was set to the tune of a popular English drinking song. Congress officially named it the national anthem in 1931.

Key was born on his family's 2,800-acre estate, Terra Rubra, near Frederick County, Maryland, on August 1, 1779. He was the son of John Ross Key, a soldier who had distinguished himself in battle during the Revolutionary War. The Keys were known for their hospitality, and in July 1791 President George Washington visited their home on his way to Philadelphia. As a boy, Key became an excellent horseman. He attended prep school at St. John's College in Annapolis, graduating in 1796. Key then remained at St. John's to earn a degree in law.

A Religious Pacifist

Key established a law practice in Frederick in 1801. The following year he married Mary Tayloe Lloyd, who also came from a prominent Maryland family. The couple eventually had eleven children, six boys and five girls. In 1803 Key and his family moved to Georgetown, in the District of Columbia. Key became a partner in the law practice of his uncle, Philip Barton Key, taking over the practice two years later.

A deeply religious man, Key was an active member of St. John's Episcopal Church and sang with the Georgetown Glee Club. He even composed a popular hymn, "Lord, with Glowing Heart I'd Praise Thee." His faith led him to maintain a pacifist stance when relations between England and the United States grew increasingly tense in the early 1810s. The British, then engaged in a war with France, frequently "impressed" American ships and crews into British service against their will. There were also disputes between British and American troops along the Canadian border and on the western frontier. Responding to the increasing British threat, the United States declared its "second war for independence" in 1812.

Became a Patriot and Enlisted

When England defeated France in 1814 and turned its full attention to fighting the United States, Key reversed his position against the war and became an avowed patriot. In 1814 he enlisted in the District of Columbia militia and became an aide to General Walter Smith. The American forces clustered around Baltimore, anticipating that it would be the main target of British attacks. Instead, the British landed near Washington, D.C., and in August 1814 they managed to capture the city and burn down the Capitol building and the White House. During the attack, Key's friend William Beanes, a Maryland physician and important patriot strategist, was captured and imprisoned aboard a British warship. The American military leaders decided to send Key to meet with the British and try to secure Beanes's release.

Key embarked on the mission on September 3, 1814. On his way, he stopped to retrieve letters written by British prisoners of war describing their good treatment by the Americans. On September 7, he sailed out to meet the British fleet at the mouth of the Potomac River. At first the captors refused to release Beanes, but they eventually agreed after reading the testimonials Key had secured. The two men's departure was delayed, however, to prevent them from revealing British plans to launch a full-scale attack on Baltimore. Their boat was put in tow behind the British fleet as it approached Fort McHenry.

Poem Conveyed Patriotic Feelings

As sixteen British warships formed a semicircle around the fort, Key noticed a thirty-by-forty-two-foot American flag flying over it. The ships commenced bombing on September 13 and continued for the next twenty-four hours. Key watched from aboard his ship as some 1,800 shells exploded in and around the fort, lighting up the night sky. American forces on land and on sea counterattacked. When the shelling finally stopped it was still dark, and Key waited impatiently to learn how the fort had fared. At dawn he saw the American flag still flying defiantly over Fort McHenry, proving that the American forces had prevailed.

In the early morning hours of September 14, 1814, Key wrote a poem conveying his patriotic feelings about the battle. He and Beanes were allowed to return to Baltimore later that morning, where Key's poem was soon published as a broadside entitled "The Defense of Fort McHenry." The verse quickly gained popularity as it was reprinted in newspapers across the country and set to the tune of a popular song, "To Anacreon in Heaven." Key's song, renamed "The Star-Spangled Banner" in 1815, was adopted by the Union army during the Civil War and was declared the anthem of the American military during World War I. After several failed attempts, it was finally recognized by Congress as the national anthem of the United States in 1931.

A Respected Attorney

After the War of 1812, Key enjoyed a flourishing law practice. He was appointed district attorney for the District of Columbia in 1833 and held the post through 1841. In this position, Key negotiated several important agreements between the government and Native Americans. He also became active in the anti-slavery movement. Key became ill during a trip to Baltimore and died of pneumonia at the home of his daughter on January 11, 1843.

The "Star-Spangled Banner" has been criticized in some quarters, mostly due to its musical difficulty, and some minor attempts have been made to replace it as the national anthem. "No matter how many critics our anthem might have," composer John Philip Sousa asserted in Francis Scott Key and the Star Spangled Banner, "none of them can dispute the fact that it was a very satisfactory anthem during the World Wars and played an enormous part in arousing enthusiasm and patriotism. It would be as easy to make a stream run uphill as to secure a new national anthem…. The only possible chance that we might have a new national anthem would be when the eyes of all Americans are directed toward some particular cause and another genius captures the spirit of the moment in a thrilling song of patriotism. Until that time I do not believe the veneration for Francis Scott Key's anthem will ever be displaced." The flag that inspired Key, as well as his original manuscript, are on display at the Smithsonian Institution.

Further Reading

Silkett, John T., Francis Scott Key and the History of the Star Spangled Banner, Vintage American Publishing, 1978.

Weybright, Victor, Spangled Banner: The Story of Francis Scott Key, Farrar and Rinehart, 1935.

(1779-1843), lawyer and author of the words of "The Star-Spangled Banner." Key was born in what is now Carroll County, Maryland, into a prosperous family. After graduating from St. John's College in Annapolis in 1796, Key trained as a lawyer. (An early friend was Roger B. Taney, later chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, who married Key's sister.) Key began the practice of law in Frederick in 1801 and by the time of the War of 1812 had established a successful law practice in Georgetown, D.C. He was also an amateur poet and was extremely active in the Episcopal church.

Key's chance for more than local fame came as a result of the War of 1812. As one phase of a series of attacks on the United States in 1814, the British landed troops in the Chesapeake Bay area. In August, after defeating the Americans at the Battle of Bladensburg, they temporarily occupied Washington, D.C., burned the public buildings, withdrew, and sailed up the Chesapeake to attack Baltimore. In the course of their withdrawal, the British arrested and took with them a local physician, Dr. William Beanes.

Beanes's friends asked Key to intervene with the British to secure his release. Accompanied by an American agent for prisoners of war, Key sailed out to the British fleet in Chesapeake Bay and arranged for Beanes to be freed. The British, however, were about to launch their attack on Baltimore, and they detained the Americans until after the attack. On the night of September 13-14 the British bombarded Fort McHenry, one of the American forts guarding Baltimore. In the morning, when "by dawn's early light" Key saw the American flag still flying over the fort, he was inspired to write the poem that became known as "The Star-Spangled Banner." He quickly jotted down the lines and that night on shore wrote out a fair copy. It was printed immediately and issued in Baltimore as a handbill with the title "Defence of Fort M'Henry" and was quickly reprinted in Baltimore and elsewhere. Set to the music of the English drinking song "To Anacreon in Heaven," Key's composition soon achieved national popularity, although Congress did not adopt it as the official national anthem until 1931.

Key continued to practice law and from 1833 to 1841 served as U.S. district attorney for Washington, D.C. He was sent to Alabama to settle a dispute with that state over Creek Indian lands in 1833. Key was not a serious poet but wrote verses from time to time, a collection of which was published posthumously in 1857.

Bibliography:

F. S. Key-Smith, Francis Scott Key (1911); Poems of the Late Francis S. Key (1857).

Author:

Reginald Horsman

A lawyer and poet of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Key wrote the words to “The Star-Spangled Banner” while watching the British bombardment of Fort McHenry, Maryland, in the War of 1812.

Francis Scott Key
Born	August 1, 1779(1779-08-01) Carroll County, Maryland, U.S.
Died	January 11, 1843 (aged 63) Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Poet, lawyer, district attorney
Religious beliefs	Episcopalian

Maryland Historical Society plaque marking the birthplace of Francis Scott Key

Fort McHenry looking towards the position of the British ships (with the Francis Scott Key Bridge in the distance on the upper left)

Francis Scott Key (August 1, 1779 – January 11, 1843) was an American lawyer, author, and amateur poet, from Georgetown, who wrote the words to the United States' national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner."

Contents 1 Life 1.1 "The Star-Spangled Banner" 1.2 Later life 2 Other related items 3 Monuments and memorials 4 Media 5 See also 6 Notes 7 External links

Life

Francis Scott Key was born to Ann Phoebe Penn Dagworthy (Charlton) and Captain John Ross Key at the family plantation Terra Rubra in what was Frederick County and is now Carroll County, Maryland. His father John Ross Key was a lawyer, a judge and an officer in the Continental Army.

He studied law at St. John's College, Annapolis, Maryland and also learned under his uncle Philip Barton Key.^[1]

"The Star-Spangled Banner"

During the War of 1812, Key, accompanied by the American Prisoner Exchange Agent Colonel John Stuart Skinner, dined aboard the British ship HMS Tonnant, as the guests of three British officers: Vice Admiral Alexander Cochrane, Rear Admiral Sir George Cockburn, and Major General Robert Ross. Skinner and Key were there to negotiate the release of prisoners, one being Dr. William Beanes. Beanes was a resident of Upper Marlboro, Maryland and had been captured by the British after he placed rowdy stragglers under citizen's arrest with a group of men. Skinner, Key, and Beanes were not allowed to return to their own sloop, they had become familiar with the strength and position of the British units and with the British intent to attack Baltimore. As a result of this, Key was unable to do anything but watch the bombarding of the American forces at Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore on the night of September 13–September 14, 1814.^[2]

When the smoke cleared, Key was able to see an American flag still waving and reported this to the prisoners below deck. On the way back to Baltimore, he was inspired to write a poem describing his experience, "The Defence of Fort McHenry", which he published in the Patriot on September 20, 1814. He intended to fit the rhythms of composer John Stafford Smith's "To Anacreon in Heaven".^[2] It has become better known as "The Star Spangled Banner". Under this name, the song was adopted as the American national anthem, first by an Executive Order from President Woodrow Wilson in 1916 (which had little effect beyond requiring military bands to play it) and then by a Congressional resolution in 1931, signed by President Herbert Hoover.

Later life

In 1832, Key served as the attorney for Sam Houston during his trial in the U.S. House of Representatives for assaulting another Congressman. ^[3] He published a prose work called The Power of Literature, and Its Connection with Religion in 1834.^[1]

In 1835, Key prosecuted Richard Lawrence for his unsuccessful attempt to assassinate President of the United States Andrew Jackson.

In 1843, Key died at the home of his daughter Elizabeth Howard in Baltimore from pleurisy and was initially interred in Old Saint Paul's Cemetery in the vault of John Eager Howard. In 1866, his body was moved to his family plot in Frederick at Mount Olivet Cemetery. Though Key had written poetry from time to time, often with heavily religious themes, these works were not collected and published until 14 years after his death.^[1]

The Key Monument Association erected a memorial in 1898 and the remains of both Francis Scott Key and his wife were placed in a crypt in the base of the monument.

Other related items

In 1861, Key's grandson was imprisoned in Fort McHenry with the Mayor of Baltimore, George William Brown, and other locals deemed to be pro-South.

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's daughter, Alice, married U.S. Senator George H. Pendleton.

His sister, Anne Phoebe Charlton Key, married Roger B. Taney, future Chief Justice of the United States and author of the Court's Dred Scott decision.

Key's son, Philip Barton Key was shot and killed by General Daniel Sickles in 1859 after General Sickles discovered that his wife was having an affair with Philip Barton Key.

Robert Altman credited Key with the "title song" of Brewster McCloud, though it contained only John Stafford Smith's instrumentals.

Monuments and memorials

Plaque commemorating the death of Francis Scott Key placed by the DAR in Baltimore.

The Howard family vault at Saint Paul's Cemetery, Baltimore, Maryland.

• Two bridges are named in his honor. The first is the Francis Scott Key Bridge between the Rosslyn section of Arlington County, Virginia, and Georgetown in Washington, D.C.. Scott's Georgetown home, which was dismantled in 1947 (as part of construction for the Whitehurst Freeway), was located on M Street NW, in the area between the Key Bridge and the intersection of M Street and Whitehurst Freeway. The location is illustrated on a sign in the Francis Scott Key park.^[4]

• The other bridge is the Francis Scott Key Bridge, part of the Baltimore Beltway crossing the outer harbor of Baltimore, Maryland. Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge is located at the approximate point where the British anchored to shell Fort McHenry.

• St. John's College, Annapolis, which Key graduated from in 1796, has an auditorium named in his honor.

• Francis Scott Key was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.

• He is buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Frederick. His family plot is next to Thomas Johnson, the first governor of Maryland, and friend Barbara Fritchie, who allegedly waved the American flag out of her home in defiance of Stonewall Jackson's march through the city during the Civil War.

• Francis Scott Key Hall at the University of Maryland, College Park is named in his honor. The George Washington University also has a residence hall in Key's honor at the corner of 19th and F Streets.

• Francis Scott Key also has a school named after him in Brooklyn, New York. I.S 117 is a junior high school located in the Fort Greene section of Brooklyn on Willoughby Avenue. It houses 6th, 7th, and 8th grade classrooms as well as a District 75 Special Education unit. The Special Education classes include children who are emotionally disturbed. For more information on the school and its programs please visit the schools main site, P369k, located in Downtown Brooklyn.

• Francis Scott Key High School in rural Carroll County, Maryland.
• Francis Scott Key Middle School (at least three)
• Francis Scott Key Elementary School (several, including California,^[5] Maryland, Virginia, Washington, DC).
• Francis Scott Key Mall in Frederick County, Maryland.

• The Frederick Keys minor league baseball team is named after Key.

• A monument to Key was commissioned by San Francisco businessman James Lick, who donated some $60,000 for a sculpture of Key to be raised in Golden Gate Park.^[6] The travertine monument was executed by sculptor William W. Story in Rome in 1885-87.^[7][8] The city of San Francisco recently allocated some $140,000 to renovate the Key monument, which was about to be lost to environmental degradation if repairs weren't made. Repairs were recently finished on the monument located in the music concourse outside the de Young Museum.

• The US Navy named a submarine in his honor, the USS Francis Scott Key

Media

	The Star-Spangled Banner (1942) Fred Waring and His Pennsylvanians sing The Star-Spangled Banner in 1942 The Star-Spangled Banner (1915) A 1915 recording of the Star-Spangled Banner as sung by Margaret Woodrow "Woody" Wilson, daughter of Woodrow Wilson
Problems listening to these files? See media help.

See also

• War of 1812

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b c} Hubbell, Jay B. The South in American Literature: 1607-1900. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1954: 300.
2. ^ ^{a b} Hubbell, Jay B. The South in American Literature: 1607-1900. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1954: 301.
3. ^ Sam Houston. Handbook of Texas Online.
4. ^ "Francis Scott Key Park". Historical Marker Database. 2006-02-23. http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=119. Retrieved 2008-02-06. 
5. ^ "Francis Scott Key Elementary School, San Francisco, CA". http://www.francisscottkeyschool.org/home. 
6. ^ "Francis Scott Key". The New York Times. March 14, 1897. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9504E3D61F31E132A25757C1A9659C94669ED7CF. Retrieved 2008-02-17. 
7. ^ Ibid.
8. ^ "San Francisco Landmark 96: Francis Scott Key Monument, Golden Gate Park". Noehill in San Francisco. http://www.noehill.com/sf/landmarks/sf096.asp. Retrieved 2008-02-17. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Francis Scott Key

Wikisource has original works written by or about: Francis Scott Key

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Francis Scott Key

• Francis Scott Key at the Songwriters Hall of Fame
• Short biography
• Francis Scott Keys's biographic sketch at Find A Grave
• Francis Scott Key biography at Cyber Hymnal

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