Francis Scott Key

Francis Scott Key, author of the national anthem, was a lawyer, patriot, community leader, and poet whose home and law office stood approximately 100 yards west of here. He lived there from 1803 to about 1833 with his wife, the former Mary Taylor Lloyd of Annapolis, Maryland, and their six sons and five daughters. During the War of 1812, after British troops invaded and captured Washington in August 1814, burned the Capitol, the White House, and most federal buildings, and took Dr. William Beanes prisoner as they withdrew to their ships, Key came to the aid of friends seeking Beanes's release. Under a flag of truce approved by President James Madison, Key set out with Colonel John Stuart Skinner, an American agent for prisoner exchange, located the British fleet, and boarded Admiral Cochrane's Royal Navy flagship. He successfully arranged for Beanes's release, but because they might reveal British plans to attack Fort McHenry and Baltimore, they were detained under guard aboard their ship. Throughout the night of September 13-14, 1814, Key watched the bombardment of Fort McHenry from the deck, and at dawn, seeing that the American flag still flew, he began composing a poem on the back of a letter. After his release following the British defeat, he continued working on the poem, and the next day showed it to his relative Judge Joseph Hopper Nicholson, a defender of Fort McHenry, who immediately had broadsides printed and circulated. That poem became The Star Spangled Banner. Key's law practice continued to flourish, and he was appointed three times as U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. He was active in antislavery causes, advocated the establishment of public schools, negotiated a treaty in 1833 between the Creek Indians and settlers in Alabama, and served as a vestryman of Saint John's Church as well as a founder of Christ Church in George Town. He died of pneumonia in Baltimore on January 11, 1843, at the home of his eldest daughter, Mrs. Charles Howard, and was buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery near his birthplace in Frederick, Maryland.

Washington, District of Columbia · United States