A Portrait of Old George Town

by Grace Dunlop Peter

A little granddaughter of his, living there, went one day with a friend of hers to place flowers on the grave of a child of Jefferson Davis in Oak Hill Cemetery. They were arrested, and when it was discovered who she was, soldiers were sent to search the house. Mrs. Marbury had some letters from her nephews in the Confederate Army, and she hurriedly sewed them up in a chair, for she said the boys might be killed and she hated to destroy their letters. Many, many years after, on a summer day in the garret of an old house, not far from Leesburg, Virginia, three of Mrs. Marbury's great-grandchildren ripped them out of their long hiding place.

Just a few doors west of this interesting old house stood another, somewhat smaller, which, until a few years ago, was in its original state of preservation. Now it has gone! It was the home of the author of our National Anthem. Here Francis Scott Key lived for twenty years. Here his eleven children were born, while he served three terms as District Attorney and engaged in the private practice of law.

Everyone knows the story of how, hearing of the arrest of a friend, Dr. William Beanes, by the British, in the War of 1812, Mr. Key made the trip to Baltimore to see what he could do to help the old gentleman, who had done some very rash talking down in Prince Georges County. Mr. Key was a connection of Mrs. Beanes', who was a member of the Plater family.

Mr. Key went on board the British man-of-war, under the command of Admiral Cockburn, called The Red Devil of the Chesapeake, lying opposite Fort McHenry, but was told by the captain that he would have to spend the night on board as a bombardment was about to take place. Imagine his sensations all through the night—no wonder that he burst forth into such a poem of love for his flag when he came on deck in the early morning and saw it "still there!"

Home of Francis Scott Key

Poetry was only a side issue with Mr. Key. I have often thought how interesting it is that a man may work all the days of his life at his profession or vocation, and some avocation, like verse-making, may carry his name down to posterity; like Izaak Walton, who had an insurance business in London, but is remembered now only as a fisherman.

Don't you imagine Mr. Key would have been amazed if he could have had a vision of the years to come, when on parade grounds all over this great land at sunset, every day, troops stand immovable at attention while the emblem of their country is being lowered for the night, and the strains of the music of his poem thrill all who hear it? "The Star-Spangled Banner" was first read by Mr. Key at a meeting of the George Town Glee Club.

Francis Scott Key was a nephew of Philip Barton Key, and a vestryman, like his uncle, of Saint John's Church. He was a fine, humanitarian gentleman. In a recent book, called Father Takes Us to Washington, he is accused of having treated his dozen slaves in a terrible manner. His great-grandson has just come out with a refutation of such treatment and said that Mr. Key freed all of his slaves before his death in 1843 and that he was one of the founders of the American Colonization Society, which had for its purpose the freedom of the Negroes and their colonization on the West Coast of Africa. Of course, it was in James Monroe's administration that Liberia was founded and its capital named Monrovia.