Belvoir Cemetery

In a field some distance from the imposing mansion at " Belvoir," which stands about seven miles from Annapolis, is a plain upright slab bearing simply these words:

Mrs. Ann Arnold Key,  Died Jan. 5th, 1811 Aged 84 years. Until a few years ago tradition made this lady the mother of Francis Scott. Key of "Star Spangled Banner" fame.
To rectify the mistake a block of white marble placed there through the efforts of the Memorial Committee of the Maryland Society of the Colonial Dames of America, in co-operation
with three of Mrs. Key's descendants, now establishes her identity as the poet's grandmother. She was the wife of Francis Key, clerk of Cecil county, and daughter of John
Ross, who arrived in Maryland about the year 1721, and held a succession of important public offices until his death in 1766. Her mother was Alicia Arnold, the granddaughter
of Rev. Thomas Knipe, Prebendary of Westminster, and headmaster of Westminster School, who is buried in the Abbey. Through the letters of her great-aunt, Helen Wolseley Sprat, directed to "Madame Alicia Ross at her house at Annapolis in Maryland, in the West Indies," her maternal ancestry is preserved. It includes names of interesting personages
figuring in the stirring events of that day. Mrs. Sprat herself was the wife of the Bishop of Rochester, of whom Macaulay says: " He was indeed a great master of language
and possessed at once the eloquence of the preacher, the controversialist and the historian." About him the pages of history are not silent, and so we shall pass on to persons
more intimately associated with the subject in hand. To quote from my Lady Rochester's correspondence we have the following: "I hear send you your great-grandfather's
(picture) In Littel; he was Colon'll Devereux Wolseley, he was third son of Sr Thomas Wolseley of Wolseley's Bridge in the County of Stafford, Knight. My mother, his wife and
your great-grandmother always wore it by her side and gave me it when she died. She was Elizabeth Zouch, third daughter and Co-heiress of Sr John Zouch of Codnor Castle in the
Co. of Darby, Knight."  This same Sir John Zouche was in 1631 one of the "commissioners" for the better plantations of Virginia. He was, moreover, brother-in-law of Vincent Lowe, a, name not only well known in the archives of Maryland, but, also, as that of  the father-in-law of Charles, third Lord Baltimore. In every turn the allusions in this correspondence bring one in touch
with families descending from the same source, who have contributed not only to the making of our history, but to the social life of the Province and thence to that of the state.
Thus are we able to link with the name of Mrs. Key's grandson, our immortal bard, those of Calvert, Sewall, Rozier, Chandler, Pye, Brooke, Wharton, Whettenhall and many others whose family ramifications might form a volume.

It is said that "Belvoir", where Mrs.  Key and her Maynadier grandchildren are buried, was once home of her father, John Ross. At all events her sister Elizabeth, who had married Upton Scott of Annapolis, lived there with her a part of the time, which will account for a tradition of the latter's ownership. Near her grave is a small stone with this inscription:

In memory of the infant daughters of Henry and Elizabeth Ma Maynadier, one who died on the 19th day of September 1780 the other on the 2nd day of December 1783.

The lot was inclosed [sic] in the year 1900 by a pipe and post fence at the expense of the Maryland Society of the Colonial Dames of America.
"Belvoir" is a beautifully situated and from a slight elevation across the lawn a fine view of the Chesapeake may be had. It is easy to picture ourselves the days of the past when the Ross, Key, Scott and Maynadier connections came here to enjoy the hospitality of the fine old mansion and to be fanned by refreshing breezes from the "Mother of Waters."

Source:
Helen W. Ridgely;  Historic Graves of Maryland and the District of Columbia; Edited under the Auspices of the Maryland Society of the Colonial Dames of America; Grafton Press, New York; 1908
Submitted by: Candi Horton - 2007 © Genealogy Trails
Note: [transcribers notes] (original authors notes)

Back to Cemetery Home Page

Back to Anne Arundel County Home Page

©2007 Genealogy Trails