Francis Scott Key: Difference between revisions

{{Short description|American lawyer and poet (1779–1843)}}

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{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2022}}

{{Infobox officeholder

| image = Francis Scott Key by Joseph Wood c1825.jpg

| caption = Key {{circa|1825}}

| order = 4th

| office      = United States Attorney for the District of Columbia

| president = {{ubl|[[Andrew Jackson]]|[[Martin Van Buren]]}}

| spouse = {{marriage|Mary Tayloe Lloyd|January 1, 1802}}

| death_date = {{death date and age|1843|1|11|1779|8|1}}

| resting_place = [[Mount Olivet Cemetery (Frederick, Maryland)|Mt. Olivet Cemetery]]

| children = 11,<ref name="Leepson-2014">Leepson, Marc, What so Proudly We Hailed: Francis Scott Key, a life (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), [https://books.google.com/books?id=tDFkAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA202 Appendix A, p. 202]</ref> including [[Philip Barton Key II|Philip]]

}}

Key owned slaves from 1800, during which time abolitionists ridiculed his words, claiming that America was more like the "Land of the Free and Home of the Oppressed".<ref>{{cite news |title=Where's the Debate on Francis Scott Key's Slave-Holding Legacy? |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/wheres-debate-francis-scott-keys-slave-holding-legacy-180959550/ |access-date=August 13, 2018 |agency=Smithsonian |archive-date=August 1, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230801231051/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/wheres-debate-francis-scott-keys-slave-holding-legacy-180959550/ |url-status=live }}</ref> As District Attorney, he suppressed abolitionists, and he lost a [[Trial of Reuben Crandall|case against Reuben Crandall]] in 1836 where he accused the defendant's abolitionist publications of instigating slaves to rebel. He was also a leader of the [[American Colonization Society]] which sent former slaves to Africa.<ref>{{cite news |title=The unexpected connection between slavery, NFL protests and the national anthem |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2016/08/29/sport/colin-kaepernick-flag-protest-has-history-trnd/index.html |work=CNN |access-date=August 9, 2018 |archive-date=August 10, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180810101159/https://edition.cnn.com/2016/08/29/sport/colin-kaepernick-flag-protest-has-history-trnd/index.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Francis Scott Key's life was a lot more complicated than just writing The Star-Spangled Banner |url=https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/francis-scott-keys-life-was-a-lot-more-complicated-than-just-writing-the-star-spangled-banner |newspaper=The Washington Examiner |access-date=August 9, 2018}}</ref> He freed some of his slaves in the 1830s, paying one as his farm foreman to supervise his other slaves.<ref name="Leepson" /> He publicly criticized slavery and gave free legal representation to some slaves seeking freedom, but he also represented owners of runaway slaves. He had eight slaves at the time of his death.<ref name="UNCP" />

==Early life==

[[File:Mary Tayloe Lloyd (Mrs. Francis Scott Key).jpg|thumb|Mary Tayloe Lloyd, early 1800s]]

[[File:TerraRubra.jpg|thumb|right|[[Maryland Historical Society]] plaque marking Key's birthplace]]

Key grew up on the family plantation [[Terra Rubra]] in [[Frederick County, Maryland]], which is now in [[Carroll County, Maryland|Carroll County]].<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-f3caYlJTw0C&dq=Francis+Scott+Key+John+Ross+Key&pg=PA8 |title=Francis Scott Key: Patriotic Poet |first=Susan R. |last=Gregson |publisher=Capstone |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-7368-1554-3 }}</ref> He graduated from [[St. John's College (Annapolis/Santa Fe)|St.{{nbsp}}John's College]], [[Annapolis, Maryland]], in 1796 and [[Reading law|read law]] under his uncle [[Philip Barton Key]] who was loyal to the British Crown during the War of Independence.<ref name="Hubbell 300">{{cite book |last=Hubbell |first=Jay B. |title=The South in American Literature: 1607–1900 |location=Durham, North Carolina |publisher=Duke University Press |year=1954 |page=300 }}</ref> He married Mary Tayloe Lloyd on January 1, 1802, daughter of [[Edward Lloyd (Continental Congress)|Edward Lloyd IV]] of [[Wye House]] and Elizabeth Tayloe, daughter of [[John Tayloe II]] of [[Mount Airy Plantation|Mount Airy]] and sister of [[John Tayloe III]] of [[The Octagon House]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Tayloe |first=Walter Randolph |title=The Tayloes of Virginia And Allied Families |location=Berryville, Virginia |page=5 |year=1963 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89066361866&view=1up&seq=23&q1=key |archive-date=May 22, 2021 |access-date=November 22, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210522051310/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89066361866&view=1up&seq=23&q1=key |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thebeaconnewspapers.com/becoming-mr-and-mrs-francis-scott-key/|title=Becoming Mr. And Mrs. Francis Scott Key|date=October 2, 2014|work=The Beacon|first=Carol|last=Sorgen|access-date=September 13, 2021|archive-date=November 3, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231103174803/https://www.thebeaconnewspapers.com/becoming-mr-and-mrs-francis-scott-key/|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Francis-Scott-Key |title=Francis Scott Key &#124; American lawyer |date=July 28, 2021 |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Britannica |first=Marc |last=Leepson |access-date=September 13, 2021 |archive-date=August 27, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210827105420/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Francis-Scott-Key |url-status=live }}</ref> The couple raised their 11 children in their [[Georgetown (Washington, D.C.)|Georgetown]] residence, the [[Key House]].<ref name=children>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tDFkAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA202 | title=What So Proudly We Hailed: Francis Scott Key, A Life | publisher=St. Martin's Publishing Group | author=Leepson, Marc | year=2014 | pages=26, 222 | isbn=9781137278289}}</ref>

Despite several efforts to preserve it, the Francis Scott Key residence was ultimately dismantled in{{nbsp}}1947. The residence had been located at 3516{{ndash}}18{{nbsp}}M{{nbsp}}Street in Georgetown.<ref>[http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=119 Francis Scott Key Park Marker] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071030033641/http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=119 |date=October 30, 2007 }}. Hmdb.org. Retrieved September 11, 2011.</ref>

In{{nbsp}}1806, Key's sister, Anne Phoebe Charlton Key, married [[Roger&nbsp;B.&nbsp;Taney]], who would later become [[Chief Justice of the United States]]. In 1846&nbsp;one daughter, Alice, married U.S.&nbsp;Senator [[George H. Pendleton]]<ref>{{cite web|title=George Hunt Pendleton|url=http://www.ohiocivilwarcentral.com/entry.php?rec=934|publisher=Ohio Civil War Central|date=March 2012|access-date=June 26, 2012|archive-date=November 25, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151125062442/http://www.ohiocivilwarcentral.com/entry.php?rec=934|url-status=live}}</ref> and another, Ellen Lloyd, married [[Simon F. Blunt]]. In{{nbsp}}1859, Key's son [[Philip Barton Key II]], who also served as [[United States Attorney for the District of Columbia]], was shot and killed by [[Daniel Sickles]]{{nsmdns}}a U.S.{{nbsp}}Representative from New York who would serve as a general in the [[American Civil War]]{{nsmdns}}after he discovered that Philip Barton Key was having an affair with his wife.<ref>{{cite news |title=Assassination of Philip Barton Key, by Daniel E. Sickles of New York |url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/courant/access/824716112.html?dids=824716112:824716112&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&type=historic&date=Mar+01,+1859&author=&pub=Hartford+Courant&desc=Assassination+of+Philip+Barton+Key,+by+Daniel+E.+Sickles+of+New+York&pqatl=google |work=[[Hartford Daily Courant]] |date=March 1, 1959 |access-date=November 30, 2010 |archive-date=June 29, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629003510/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/courant/access/824716112.html?dids=824716112:824716112&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&type=historic&date=Mar+01,+1859&author=&pub=Hartford+Courant&desc=Assassination+of+Philip+Barton+Key,+by+Daniel+E.+Sickles+of+New+York&pqatl=google |url-status=dead }}</ref> Sickles was acquitted in the first use of the temporary insanity defense.<ref>{{Cite book | last = Twain | first = Mark | author-link = Mark Twain | title = The Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume One | publisher = University of California Press | year = 2010 | location = [[Berkeley, California]] | page = [https://archive.org/details/autobiographyofm00twai_0/page/566 566] | isbn = 978-0-520-26719-0 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/autobiographyofm00twai_0/page/566 }}</ref> In{{nbsp}}1861, Key's grandson [[Frank Key Howard|Francis Key Howard]] was imprisoned in [[Fort&nbsp;McHenry]] with the [[List of mayors of Baltimore|Mayor of Baltimore]] [[George William Brown (mayor)|George William Brown]] and other locals deemed to be [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] sympathizers.{{citation needed|date=September 2021}}

==Monuments and memorials==

[[Category:American male poets]]

[[Category:American prosecutors]]

[[Category:American United Brethren in Christ]]

[[Category:Burials at Mount Olivet Cemetery (Frederick, Maryland)]]

[[Category:People from Georgetown (Washington, D.C.)]]

[[Category:Lawyers from Baltimore]]

[[Category:United States attorneys for the District of Columbia]]

[[Category:The Star-Spangled Banner]]

[[Category:American lawyers admitted to the practice of law by reading law]]

[[Category:People of the American colonization movement]]

[[Category:Lloyd family (Maryland)]]