left behind him a house and lot in Baltimore worth £1,000 currency and debts due him amounting to about £3,000 sterling. In 1775, he made by his practice £707.10.6 sterling and £274 sterling by two branches of business. George Chalmers and James Christie testified in his behalf: the latter regarded Stenhouse's practice as the second in Baltimore.

Rev. William Edmondston,' a native of England who was rector of the parish of St. Thomas, Maryland, "prior to the troubles," testified in London on March 17, 1784. When subscriptions were made for collecting arms and ammunition early in 1774, he exhorted his parishioners "to continue their allegiance to the British government and circulated pamphlets among them" to dissuade them from resistance. In December, 1774, "he was brought before the Committee" and required to sign a recantation of all he had said, which he refused to do, but the "paper having been altered by some of his friends," he "prevented any ill usage by signing it in 1775." Being told by a friend when the "Association paper was going about," that, if he did not sign it "his house would be pulled down," he left for England with wife and family in November, 1775. He left 500 or 600 acres in Cecil County, 250 acres of which were cleared. The property was devised him by his father in 1753 and was valued at £1,600 sterling. He also had 550 acres in Baltimore County valued at £1,100. By act of Assembly in 1782, the Baltimore property, which he bought in 1772 for £1,500 currency and on which he had put improvements valued at £600 or £700 currency, was given his daughter and the Cecil plantation to his wife. "His negroes and other matters" were likewise given his wife and daughter by this act and he cannot return to America. His living was worth, on an average, £300 sterling, exclusive of "surplice fees which were £75 per annum" and "were always increasing." George Chalmers testified in his behalf and said he believed Edmondston "went so far as to have refused administering the sacrament to many who had taken part against us." Robert Alexander, a member of the Committee who examined Edmondston in 1774,

1ш, p. 1124.

spoke highly of his respectability and his loyalty and Dr. Stenhouse bore witness to his loyal sermons.

In the third report of the Bureau are found applications for land in Upper Canada from Valentine and Jacob Oiler,-Oyler, Eyler, or Euler, formerly residing in Frederick County. Valentine Eyler produced a certificate, drawn up in Frederick County on October 20, 1788, and signed by Joel Wright and 15 others, neighbors of Eyler, stating that his "general character" had not, "that we know of, been charged with anything unfavourable, except his Attachment to the British Interest in the late war, for which he suffered imprisonment and had his estate confiscated."

DATE OF FRANCIS SCOTT KEY'S BIRTH.

MCHENRY HOWARD.

1. Francis Scott Key died at the residence of his eldest child, Mrs. Elizabeth Phoebe (Key) Howard, wife of Charles Howard, at the northeast corner of Mount Vernon Place and Washington Place, (where the Methodist Church now stands), Baltimore, on 11th January, 1843. In an editorial notice of his death in the Baltimore Sun of 13th January, 1843, it is stated that "Mr. Key was born on the 1st of August, 1779, at Terra Rubra, his patrimonial estate in Carroll County, but which at that time formed a portion of Frederick County. At the time of his death he was in his sixty-fourth year." In all probability this information was obtained by the editor from Mrs. or Mr. Howard.

2. Mr. Charles Howard was making a Lloyd family book between about 1858 and his death in 1869-Mrs. Howard being still living-and in the book, now in my possession, he states that "Francis Scott Key" (whose wife was a Lloyd) "was born 1st August, 1779, at the residence of his father, John Ross Key, near Pipe Creek, in Frederick County, Maryland. Mr. Key died

1Pp. 93, 112.

in Baltimore whilst on a visit to his eldest daughter, Mrs. Howard, on the 11th January, 1843, in the 64th year of his age."

3. From a mass of rough notes of the late Major Frank Marx Etting, U. S. A., who died some 12 or 15 years ago, I made some copies about 10 years ago which I still have. Major Etting had married a granddaughter of Chief Justice Taney and his wife who was the only sister of Francis Scott Key, and he had been very industrious and much interested in hunting up and compiling information about his wife's family, and particularly the Key branch. I knew at the time that he was visiting many localities and examining records and making enquiries of members of the family and others. I find in these notes, "Fran S. K. b. at Terra Rubra in Frederick Aug. 1st, 1779, & X bd. by Rev. Mr. Henope," and in another place, "Fran" Scott Key b. Pipe Creek Fred. Co., Aug. 1st, 1779," and in another, "Francis Scott Key born at Pipe Creek (Aug. 1 (2?) 1779, christened by the Rev. Mr. Henope," and in another, "Francis Scott Key b. Pipe Creek Fredk. Co., 1 Aug., 1779, christened by Rev. Mr. Henope."

Now I learn from Scharf's History of Western Maryland, Vol. 1, page 508, that the Rev. Frederick L. Henope was pastor of the Evangelical Reformed Church in Frederick County from 1768 to 1782. But I do not find in the records of that Church, now at the Maryland Historical Society, any entry of such baptism. The Key family was Protestant Episcopalian and a baptism by this Minister may have been because of illness or on some other emergency and so not recorded in this Church's register. And yet Major Etting must have got this precise information either from some church record or from a family Bible, most likely Key or Taney. I do not know where such a Bible may now be found, but I feel almost sure that Francis Scott Key did have one.

4. The entry of Francis Scott Key's matriculation at St. John's College at Annapolis, is as follows:

"Francis S. Key, 10 years, entered Nov. 11th, 1789." All the authorities agreeing that he was born in August, this would make the year of his birth 1779 and not 1780.

5. On the other hand, the monument erected in Frederick in 1898 gives the date of his birth as 9th August, 1780. No doubt this was simply taken from the headstone at his grave which had the brief inscription (copied by me in 1896), "Francis Scott Key, born Aug. 9th, 1780, died Jan'y 11th, 1843." When his remains were removed from this grave to the site, in the same Cemetery, where the monument was about to be erected, I wrote to Frederick, stating the doubt and probable mistake about the date, and asking that the coffin-plate be examined, but I have never heard that this was done.

When he died in 1843 his body was placed in the Howard vault in St. Paul's burial ground, Lombard, Greene and Fremont Streets, Baltimore, and there it remained, without a tombstone, of course, until 1866. In that year his daugthers, Mrs. Howard and Mrs. Alice Key Pendleton, wife of George H. Pendleton, selected a lot in Mount Olivet Cemetery, Frederick, and had his remains removed from the Howard vault to it. I have the correspondence about the removal. And I suppose the headstone, with the date August 9th, 1780, was put there by them then or shortly afterwards. If my mother, Mrs. Howard, who lived until 1897, had had any part in putting it there much later than 1870, I think I would have known of it. Mrs. Pendleton may have done so alone before her death in 1886.

Now I suppose that this inscription, August 9th, 1780, on the tombstone at least 23 years after his death, came to be made in this way: In the Bible of his second child, Mrs. Maria (Key) Steele, of Annapolis, there is an entry in her handwriting, "F. S. Key born Augst. 9th, 1780," and I think it probable that whoever had the headstone placed at the grave took the date from that entry. Mrs. Pendleton was a much younger child, under 20 at her father's death, and may well have applied to her older sister, Mrs. Steele, for the information. And even my mother, the eldest, in her older age, in 1866 or afterwards, so long after her father's death, may have forgotten or distrusted her memory of the date and would probably have accepted the entry written in the Bible of her next oldest sister.

At any rate, only in Mrs. Steele's Bible and on the tombstone, placed at his grave for the first time at least 23 years after his death, is the date of birth given as August 9th, 1780.

I conclude from the statement in the Sun at the time of his death, my father's entry in the Lloyd family book, Major Etting's notes with their precise account of baptism, and the entry on St. John's College register, that Francis Scott Key was born in 1779 and not in 1780, and from the above other than the College register, that it was on the 1st and not the 9th of August-all the other authorities making August to be the month.

It is more important, if a statue is to be erected, to know what original portraits there are of him. I know of but two.

1. My mother often spoke of one which was in the possession of her cousin, Mary Shaaff, (of Alexandria, Va., I think), who, she said, had promised to give, or at her death, to leave it to her. And it came, to her great gratification, about 1880 as near as I can recollect the date. She had it for several years and parted with it to her sister, Mrs. Pendleton, at whose death in 1886 it passed to her son, Frank Key Pendleton, now a lawyer in New York City, who still has it. It is a very good painting, either by Peale or some other leading artist at the time, and represents him as a very young man, probably not over 20.

2. John Randolph of Roanoke and Francis Scott Key had their portraits painted at the same time for exchange-as I have often heard my mother tell. But Randolph did not like Key's portrait and gave it to my mother. Neither did she like it much, and I have heard her say that a pin scratch across the face was made by her. Since her death it has belonged to my brother, James Howard. It was painted by a man named Wood, in Washington I suppose. It is not a good work of art, but is valuable as the only picture of him (that I know of), in later life. I should say it was painted when he was somewhere about 40. Being only 4 years old when he died, my own recollection of him is not distinct enough to enable me to say how good a likeness it is.