John Ross Key

John Ross Key (September 19, 1754 – October 11, 1821) 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 (Ross) 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. Francis took the practice over entirely when his uncle ran for Congress.

John Ross Key (artist)

John Ross Key (16 July 1832, Hagerstown, Maryland – 24 March 1920, Baltimore) was an American artist most known for his frontier landscapes.

Key was the grandson of Francis Scott Key, author of The Star Spangled Banner.

Career

From 1853 to 1856, Key was a draughtsman and map maker for the US Coast Survey in Washington, DC.

In 1863, Key was commissioned as second lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers at Charleston, where he recorded the federal siege in his paintings.

In 1869, Key moved to the East Coast and became a member of the Society of Washington Artists and the Boston Art Club.

From 1870 to 1873, Key had a studio in San Francisco. In May 1871 his work was part of the first exhibition by the San Francisco Art Association.

After spending two years studying in Europe, Key returned to the USA and set up studios in Boston and New York. In 1876 his painting "The Golden Gate, San Francisco" won a gold medal in the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition. The next year one hundred of his paintings were on display in the Boston Athenaeum.

John Ross

John Ross or Jack Ross may refer to:

People

Australia

Canada

John Ross (Royal Navy officer)

Admiral Sir John Ross, RN, CB (24 June 1777 – 30 August 1856) was a British naval officer and Arctic explorer.

Ross was the son of the Rev. Andrew Ross of Balsarroch, minister of Inch in Wigtownshire, and Elizabeth Corsane, daughter of Robert Corsane, the Provost of Dumfries. In 1786, aged only nine, he joined the Royal Navy as an apprentice. He served in the Mediterranean until 1789 and then in the English Channel. In 1808, he acted as a captain of the Swedish Navy and in 1812 became a Commander.

Sir John was the uncle of Captain Sir James Clark Ross, RN who explored the Arctic with him, and later led expeditions to the south pole.

Arctic expeditions

1818: first Arctic expedition

In 1818, six years after he became a Commander in the Swedish Navy, he received the command of an Arctic expedition organised by the British Admiralty, the first of a new series of attempts to solve the question of a Northwest Passage. This entailed going around the extreme northeast coast of America and sailing to the Bering Strait. He was also to note the currents, tides, the state of ice and magnetism and to collect specimens he found on the way.

John Ross (businessman)

CSgt John Ross, Esq. (25 October 1840 – 26 November 1876) was a very successful Victorian businessman with substantial retail interests. His fortune was stolen by a lawyer on his death.

Career

Born the son of a schoolteacher in the city centre of Glasgow, Ross came to Falkirk, the cradle of the Industrial Revolution in Falkirk, Scotland to set up retail outlets at the age of just 17, principally hatters and grocers on the High Street, the longest in Britain.

Other interests

Ross had been a member of the local Volunteer Company since its formation in 1859, and had attained the rank of Colour-Sergeant by his death. He was also a dedicated Freemason, a successful member of the Curling, Bowling and Chess Clubs in the area (as his numerous prizes testified) and was one of only twelve members of the Ancient Order of Free Gardeners.

Death

Ross died suddenly of a heart attack on Sunday 26 November 1876, and was interred with full military honours. His funeral was a grand occasion with a full march (followed by several carriages and a band) through the town and a gun salute. Hundreds of spectators lined the streets of Falkirk as the coffin was carried past, his remains followed by what the local newspaper deemed 'one of the largest company of mourners ever seen at a funeral in Falkirk'. Captain Nimmo of the Volunteers commented: