Francis Scott Key

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Francis Scott Key bigraphy, stories - Lawyers

Francis Scott Key : biography

August 1, 1779 – January 11, 1843

Francis Scott Key (August 1, 1779 – January 11, 1843) was an American lawyer, author, and amateur poet, from Georgetown, who wrote the lyrics to the United States’ national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner".

Monuments and memorials

  • Francis Scott Key Monument in Baltimore, Maryland
  • Two bridges are named in his honor. The first is the Francis Scott Key Bridge between the Rosslyn section of Arlington County, Virginia, and Georgetown in Washington, D.C.. Scott’s Georgetown home, which was dismantled in 1947 (as part of construction for the Whitehurst Freeway), was located on M Street NW, in the area between the Key Bridge and the intersection of M Street and Whitehurst Freeway. The location is illustrated on a sign in the Francis Scott Key park.
  • The other bridge is the Francis Scott Key Bridge, part of the Baltimore Beltway crossing the outer harbor of Baltimore, Maryland. Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge is located at the approximate point where the British anchored to shell Fort McHenry.
  • St. John’s College, Annapolis, which Key graduated from in 1796, has an auditorium named in his honor.
  • Francis Scott Key was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.
  • He is buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Frederick. His family plot is next to Thomas Johnson, the first governor of Maryland, and friend Barbara Fritchie, who allegedly waved the American flag out of her home in defiance of Stonewall Jackson’s march through the city during the Civil War. Fritchie’s resistance was memorialized in a poem by Poet Laureate John Greenleaf Whittier.
  • Francis Scott Key Hall at the University of Maryland, College Park is named in his honor. The George Washington University also has a residence hall in Key’s honor at the corner of 20th and F Streets.
  • Francis Scott Key also has a school named after him in Brooklyn, New York. I.S 117 is a junior high school located in the Fort Greene section of Brooklyn on Willoughby Avenue. It houses 6th, 7th, and 8th grade classrooms as well as a District 75 Special Education unit. The Special Education classes include children who are emotionally disturbed. For more information on the school and its programs please visit the schools main site, , located in Downtown Brooklyn.
  • Francis Scott Key High School in rural Carroll County, Maryland.
  • Francis Scott Key Middle School (at least three)
  • Francis Scott Key Elementary School (several, including California, Maryland, Virginia, Washington, DC); Francis Scott Key School in Philadelphia.
  • Francis Scott Key Mall in Frederick County, Maryland.
  • The Frederick Keys minor league baseball team – a Baltimore affiliate – is named after Key.
  • A monument to Key was commissioned by San Francisco businessman James Lick, who donated some $60,000 for a sculpture of Key to be raised in Golden Gate Park. The travertine monument was executed by sculptor William W. Story in Rome in 1885–87. The city of San Francisco recently allocated some $140,000 to renovate the Key monument, which was about to be lost to environmental degradation if repairs weren’t made. Repairs were recently finished on the monument located in the music concourse outside the de Young Museum.
  • The US Navy named a submarine in his honor, the .

"The Star-Spangled Banner"

During the War of 1812, Key, accompanied by the British Prisoner Exchange Agent Colonel John Stuart Skinner, dined aboard the British ship HMS Tonnant, as the guests of three British officers: Vice Admiral Alexander Cochrane, Rear Admiral George Cockburn, and Major General Robert Ross. Skinner and Key were there to negotiate the release of prisoners, one of whom was Dr. William Beanes, a resident of Upper Marlboro, Maryland who had been arrested after putting rowdy stragglers under citizen’s arrest. Skinner, Key, and Beanes were not allowed to return to their own sloop because they had become familiar with the strength and position of the British units and with the British intent to attack Baltimore. As a result of this, Key was unable to do anything but watch the bombarding of the American forces at Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore on the night of September 13–14, 1814.Hubbell, Jay B. The South in American Literature: 1607–1900. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1954: 301.