Who is francis scott key

Although his best-known poem was published in , the rest of his poems were not published until 14 years after his death. Key died of a lung infection on January 11, , while visiting his daughter in Baltimore. Explore This Park. Place of Birth:. Date of Birth:. Place of Death:. Date of Death:. You Might Also Like. Loading results For much of the onslaught, shells and rockets fell on the fort at the rate of almost one a minute. At the time, Francis Scott Key, a year-old Washington lawyer and writer of occasional verse, found himself detained on a British ship within sight of the fort.

The son of a distinguished judge, he had been born into a family of wealthy plantation owners based in Keymar, Maryland. Key was in British custody due to an incident that had occurred two weeks earlier, when a year-old physician, William Beanes, confronted some British soldiers who had tried to plunder his Upper Marlboro, Maryland, home.

One of the soldiers complained to his officers, who had the doctor placed under arrest. He was escorted to one of their vessels in the Chesapeake Bay. On the face of it, Key seemed an unlikely candidate to write what would become the national anthem.

The senate vote in favor of a declaration of war, taken on June 17, , had split 19 to 13, reflecting fundamental differences between members of the largely pro-war Republicans and the largely antiwar Federalists. In the House of Representatives, the vote had been 79 to 49, with Republicans once again in favor.

It was the closest vote on any declaration of war in American history. Opposition had been particularly vehement in the Northeast. In New York that autumn of , antiwar Federalist candidates made major electoral gains in Congressional contests. By the waning months of that year, the Massachusetts legislature passed a resolution urging citizens to resist the war effort.

Antiwar sentiments ran deep in other parts of the country as well. When news of the war reached New England, a few days after the June 17 vote in Congress, church bells in many Northeastern towns and villages tolled slowly in mourning, and shopkeepers closed their businesses in protest.

By the time hostilities had dragged on for an inconclusive year and a half, delegates from New England convened in Hartford, Connecticut, to debate whether the Northeastern states should secede from the Union and establish a separate American nation.

On September 7, , Key, accompanied by American prisoner-of-exchange officer John Skinner, boarded the Tonnant , flagship of the British fleet, where Beanes was being held. They carried with them letters from British officers who had been treated by Beanes after being wounded during a skirmish in Bladensburg, Maryland. Within hours, the Americans had persuaded a British commander, Maj.

Robert Ross, to release the doctor. By then, however, the assault on Baltimore was imminent; the three Americans, guarded by British marines, were obliged to wait out the battle aboard the British sloop some eight miles upriver from Fort McHenry.

From the vessel, they anxiously watched the bombardment of the fort through the daylight hours of September It seemed unlikely, Key would later recall, that American resistance at the fort could withstand such a pounding.

Not until the mists dissipated at dawn September 14 did he learn the outcome of the battle. The fort had not fallen: Baltimore remained safe. Pickersgill had duly supplied the massive flag, sewn of wool bunting. Each of its 15 stars was about two feet across; its 15 stripes were about two feet wide. History does not record with certainty whether the flag Key saw that fateful morning was the one flown during the bombardment itself.

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 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. 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 When England defeated France in and turned its full attention to fighting the United States, Key reversed his position against the war and became an avowed patriot.

The American forces clustered around Baltimore, anticipating that it would be the main target of British attacks. Instead, the British landed near Washington, D. 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, 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.