Submitted by Joan Bittner Fry
Francis Scott Key—lawyer, poet, and patriot—was born near Pipe Creek in Frederick County, Maryland, on August 1, 1779. Key graduated from St. John’s College in Annapolis in October 1796 and was the valedictorian of his class. He then studied law under his uncle, Philip Barton Key, in Annapolis. During this period began the lifelong friendship of Key and Roger Brooks Taney.In 1880, Key began the practice of law in Frederick. On January 19, 1802, Key and Mary Taloe Lloyd were married in Annapolis. In the latter part of 1805, Key moved his family to Georgetown and took over the practice of his uncle, Philip Barton Key.
On September 7, 1814, Key and John S. Skinner, under a flag of truce, visited the British Fleet on the Chesapeake Bay to obtain the release of Dr. William Beanes, held prisoner by the British. The British agreed to release Dr. Beanes after their attack on Baltimore. All three were detained. The fleet moved up the bay as the army proceeded by land, and on September 13, 1814, they began the bombardment of Fort McHenry.
Key and his friends paced the deck of their cartel ship all day and Key remained throughout the night, watching the bombardment of Fort McHenry through field glasses. By the first light of dawn, through a rift of clouds, Key could see the flag still flying over Fort McHenry, and he was sure that Baltimore was saved. At once the poet in him began making notes on the back of an envelope, and so in the early morning of September 14, 1814, were born the words of our beloved “Star Spangled Banner.”
As Key, Skinner, and Beanes were soon released, he went to a tavern in Baltimore and completed the text of his poem. The words were soon printed on handbills and distributed under the title, “The Defense of Fort McHenry.” It was first published in a newspaper, The Baltimore Patriot, on September 20. The words were set to the tune of “The Anacreon in Heaven.” The song became popular at once, but it was not until 1931 that an Act of Congress made it the National Anthem of the United States of America.
Key died at the home of his daughter in Baltimore on January 11, 1843, and was buried in the graveyard of Old St. Paul’s Church in Baltimore. Years later, it was recalled that he had expressed a desire to be buried in Frederick County. In 1856, his body was moved to a family lot in Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Frederick, Maryland. In 1898, a beautiful monument to Key was erected in Mt. Olivet Cemetery, and on May 18, 1898, the bodies of Key, his wife, and son were placed in the crypt of this monument, which was unveiled on August 8, 1898. The flag that flies over this monument is never furled (wrapped or rolled).