Francis Scott Key was a lawyer and poet, born in the present Carroll County, Maryland, on August 1, 1779. He graduated from St. John's College in 1796 and began to practicing law in Georgetown, near Washington, D.C. In September 1814 he was sent to secure the release of a Maryland physician, Dr. William Beanes, who had been taken prisoner by British troops retiring from the burning of Washington, and who was being held aboard a British ship. While successful in his mission, his return to the District was delayed by the British attack on Baltimore during the nights of September 13-14. Key and his companions were detained on ship in the harbor and spent the night watching the British bombard the fort. Key felt sure that the attack had been successful, but when dawn disclosed the flag still 'dying Key's emotions were so stirred that he wrote the words of "The Star-Spangled Banner" on the back of an envelope. These descriptive verses were circulated as a broadside in Baltimore the next day under the title "Defense of Fort M'Henry." Within a few days the poem had been published in a newspaper and had also been linked to the tune of a popular English drinking song, "To Anacreon in Heaven;" soon the new patriotic song was being sung throughout the nation. Later Key made a complete draft which is now in a private collection in Baltimore. The song, known from about 1815 as "The Star-Spangled Banner," grew in popularity and became something of an unofficial national anthem; this status was bolstered when it was adopted by the Navy in 1889 and by the Army in 1903.

Finally, the objections that had been voiced to the song among them its musical difficulty were overridden and it was officially adopted by Congress as the national anthem in 1931. Despite its prominence there are few people who know more than the first stanza of the "Star-Spangled Banner" and even fewer who can sing the difficult melody. Numerous attempts have been made to simplify the music, but none have been generally accepted.

Key's few other verse works were of little note; he remained in Georgetown and Washington for most of the rest of his life and from 1833 to 1841 was U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. He died in Baltimore on January 11, 1843.