John Ross Key

Who was John Ross Key?

John Ross Key was a lawyer, a commissioned officer in the Continental Army, a judge, and the father of writer Francis Scott Key.

Key was born in Redland, Frederick County, Maryland, to English parents Francis Key, whose parents had come to Maryland in 1726, and his wife Ann Arnold Key. She was a strong influence on her grandson Francis when he lived with her near Annapolis when he was in school there.

Mustered into service at Frederick on June 21, 1775, Key was commissioned as a second lieutenant in Captain Thomas Price's Maryland Rifle Company. It was one of the first military forces from outside New England that came to aid General Washington at the siege of Boston, July–August 1775. By 1781 Key was a captain. He commanded a Frederick County Company of Cavalry during the Yorktown Campaign.

He was later a Justice of the Peace, a Judge, and Associate Justice of his Judicial District, which comprised Allegany, Washington and Frederick Counties. His brother Philip Barton Key, also an attorney arranged for his nephew Francis to study law under his friend, Judge Jeremiah Townley Chase in 1800 and with whom he would later be a partner in Georgetown.