Francis Scott Key was born August 1, 1779, to an affluent family. He grew up on a plantation in what is now Carroll County, Maryland.
He graduated from St. John's College in 1796 and read law under his uncle, Phillip Key. In 1802, Francis Key married Mary Lloyd and had eleven children, which they raised in Georgetown.
In 1814, Francis Key and Colonel John Skinner dined aboard the HMS Tonnant- a British gunship- in hopes of pleading for the release of Dr. William Beanes. Beanes was captured and accused of aiding the detention of British stragglers who were ransacking homes for food.
Francis Key, Colonel Kinner, and Dr. Beanes were allowed to leave upon a truce ship, but they couldn't go ashore because they'd learned about the British plans to attack Baltimore. As a result, they could only watch as the British bombarded the American forces at Fort McHenry. The battle lasted 25 hours, but- on the dawn of September 14th, Francis saw a large American flag waving over the fort.
That inspired him to write a poem about his experiences on the back of a letter. He finished it a few days later in a room at the Indian Queen Hotel. His unsigned manuscript got printed as a broadside the next day under the title "Defence of Fort M'Henry”, with the notation: "Tune – Anacreon in Heaven".
It was then published in newspapers- first in Baltimore, and then across the nation- under the new title The Star-Spangled Banner. It was somewhat difficult to sing, yet it became increasingly popular and was finally adopted as the American national anthem in 1931, more than a century after its initial publication.
Aside from his unexpected fame, Francis Scott Key was a notable lawyer, a founding member and active leader of the American Colonization Society (ACS), and a devout Episcopalian. He is also the distant cousin of F. Scott Fitzgerald, whose full name is Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald.
Key died of lung inflammation- or pleurisy- on January 11, 1843. The Key Monument Association erected a memorial in 1898 and the remains of Francis Scott Key and his wife were placed in a crypt in the base of the monument.
We are reading from Poems of the late Francis S. Key, a collection of his poetry published in 1857.
