Who is Francis Scott Key

Francis Scott Key (August 1, 1779 - January 11, 1843) was an American lawyer, an author, and an 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 Captain John Ross Key at the family plantation Terra Rubra in what was Frederick County and is now Carroll County, Maryland. He was an alumnus of St. John's College, Annapolis, Maryland.

Francis Scott Key was a respected young lawyer living in Georgetown just west of where the modern day Key Bridge crosses the Potomac River (the house was torn down after years of neglect in 1947). He made his home there from 1804 to around 1833 with his wife Mary and their six sons and five daughters. At the time, Georgetown was a thriving town of 5,000 people just a few miles from the Capitol, the White House, and the Federal buildings of Washington.

Francis Scott Key was a slender man with dark blue eyes, who loved riding horses, and was generous in nature. In his lifetime he wrote many poems, all of which he considered more of a hobby, than serious writing. (In 1857, a collection of his poems was published posthumously titled, "Poems of the Late Francis Scott Key, Esq.") Key was an Episcopal churchman, a slave owner, a Maryland Federalist, and a figure of patrician wealth and Southern aristocracy. Key's family owned plantations and slaves in five counties.

The War of 1812 put conservative Southerners like Key in an odd position. They opposed the war as an ill-planned and unnecessary fight with Britain, precipitated by incompetent hotheads in Washington who thought Canada would be ripe fruit for the picking. But Key and his peers were nationalists through and through, and they equally despised the New England secessionists who were willing to break up the union late in the war over the issue of a pending army draft.

The war fell heavily on the Chesapeake Bay. The British sailed up out of the fog and burned its towns and plantations, some three or four times. Francis Scott Key fought in the local militia that tried to protect his home state, and he was infuriated by the British sack of Washington, D.C. One of Key's friends, an elderly physician names William Beanes, had been rounded up by the British as a suspected troublemaker. Key, with Colonel John Skinner, an American agent for prisoner exchange, to accompanying him, sailed out to a British warship under a flag of truce to attempt to secure Beanes' release.

Once aboard, Key was appalled by the way the British treated their American prisoners, and by their scorn of everything American. At first the British refused to release Dr. Beanes. But Key and Skinner produced a pouch of letters written by wounded British prisoners praising the care they were receiving from the Americans, among them Dr. Beanes. The British officers relented but would not release the three Americans immediately because they had seen and heard too much of the preparations for the attack on Baltimore.

From the ship, the Americans could see the ramparts of Fort McHenry, and even from eight miles away they could see the huge flag, 30 feet by 42 feet, that floated above it. At 7 o'clock in the morning on September 13, 1814, the British attack began, and continued for 25 hours. Key, Col. Skinner, and Dr. Beanes watched the battle with apprehension. They knew that as long as the shelling continued, Fort McHenry had not surrendered. But, long before daylight there came a sudden and mysterious silence. What the three Americans did not know was that the British land assault on Baltimore as well as the naval attack, had been abandoned. Judging Baltimore as being too costly a prize, the British officers ordered a retreat. Waiting in the predawn darkness, Key waited for the sight that would end his anxiety; the joyous sight of General Armistead's great flag blowing in the breeze. When at last daylight came, the flag was still there!

Being an amatuer poet and having been so uniquely inspired, Key began to write on the back of a letter he had in his pocket. Sailing back to Baltimore he composed more lines and in his lodgings at the Indian Queen Hotel he finished the poem. Judge J. H. Nicholson, his brother-in-law, took it to a printer and copies were circulated around Baltimore under the title "Defence of Fort M'Henry". Two of these copies survive. It was printed in a newspaper for the first time in the Baltimore Patriot on September 20th,1814, then in papers as far away as Georgia and New Hampshire. To the verses was added a note "Tune: Anacreon in Heaven." In October a Baltimore actor sang Key's new song in a public performance and called it "The Star-Spangled Banner".

(...partially from USFlag.org)

"The Anacreontic Song" was the official song of the Anacreontic Society, an 18th-century club of amateur musicians in London who gathered regularly to perform concerts. The song is commonly (albeit incorrectly) referred to as "To Anacreon in Heaven", which is not the title, but rather the opening line of the lyrics. These barristers, doctors, and other professional men named their club after the Greek court poet Anacreon (6th century BC), whose poems, "anacreontics", were used to entertain patrons in Teos and Athens. His songs often celebrated women, wine, and entertaining, and today can be considered eroticism.

The tune was probably composed (there is only one known firsthand account, by Society member John Samuel Stevens) by a member of the Society, John Stafford Smith (but see the discussion under the entry for The Star-Spangled Banner, where an alternative, earlier, composer is suggested), to lyrics by the Society's president, Ralph Tomlinson. Smith wrote the tune in the mid-1760s, while still a teenager. It was first published by Longman & Broderip in London in 1778/1779.

(...from Wikipedia)

Following the War of 1812, Francis, being a very religious person, even considering entering the clergy. From 1814 to 1826, he was a delegate to the general conventions of the Episcopal Church, and was the lay reader at St. John's Church in Georgetown.

Key was an effective speaker, with a quick logical mind. As an attorney he had extensive practice in the federal courts. Consequently, he was a United States attorney for the District of Columbia from 1833 to 1841. In this position, President Andrew Jackson, in October 1833, sent him to Alabama where he negotiated a settlement between the state and federal governments over the Creek Indian Lands. In 1835, Key prosecuted Richard Lawrence for his unsuccessful attempt to assassinate President of the United States Andrew Jackson.

In the middle 1830s, Key moved from Georgetown to Washington, D.C. On January 11, 1843, Francis Scott Key died of pleurisy at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Charles Howard, at Mt. Vernon Place, Baltimore. Contrary to popular belief, Key did not die from hitting his head on a bowl due to drunkenness. His body was first placed in the Howard family vault at St. Paul's Cemetery, Baltimore. In 1866, his body was 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 were placed in a crypt in the base of the monument.

Let's go back to the summer of 1813 for a moment. At the star-shaped Fort McHenry, the commander, Maj. George Armistead, asked for a flag so big that "the British would have no trouble seeing it from a distance". Two officers, a Commodore and a General, were sent to the Baltimore home of Mary Young Pickersgill, a "maker of colours," and commissioned the flag. Mary and her thirteen year old daughter Caroline, working in an upstairs front bedroom, used 400 yards of best quality wool bunting. They cut 15 stars that measured two feet from point to point. Eight red and seven white stripes, each two feet wide, were cut. Laying out the material on the malthouse floor of Claggett's Brewery, a neighborhood establishment, the flag was sewn together. By August it was finished. It measured 30 by 42 feet and cost $405.90. The Baltimore Flag House, a museum, now occupies her premises, which were restored in 1953.

(...from USFlag.org)



Above is a picture of the flag flying at Fort McHenry now. Below you see a group of visitors assisting with the nightly removal of the large flag.

When I visited Fort McHenry, I lucked into having the opportunity to participate in the folding of the huge flag. I was moved nearly to tears as I stood there with other fort visitors holding the flag and helping to fold it while the on duty ranger was giving us instructions and a a running commentary and history on the fort and the flag. After the large flag is folded, a smaller flag is hoisted to fly through the night. If you ever have the chance to visit Fort McHenry, do not pass it up. I'm glad I didn't.