Archives of Maryland
(Biographical Series)

Mrs. E. Scott (b. circa 1794 - d. 1866)
MSA SC 5496-036210
Property Owner, Rockville District, Montgomery County, Maryland

Biography:

Elizabeth Maynadier Key, usually called Eliza, was the youngest child of Philip Barton Key II and Rebecca Jules Sothron. She was born at Tudor Hall, their home in Leonardtown, St. Mary's County.1 According to a Scott family legend, Elizabeth Key was "credited with saving the Leonardtown courthouse from the depredations of the British Navy in [September] 1814 by rowing out in a boat, alone, to persuade the British ... against all evidence that the courthouse was sometimes used as 'a place of divine worship.'"2 She was a cousin of Francis Scott Key, who studied in Philip Barton Key II's law office in Annapolis.3

On June 10, 1816, Eliza married John Scott,4 who had served on Baltimore's City Council in 1810, and "was the one to suggest the Peale Museum."5 The couple had six children: Elizabeth Rebecca Key in 1817, Susannah Goodwin Key in 1818, Mary Victorine in 1822, Robert Morris Key in 1826, John Key in 1829, and Cecelia Ashton in 1832.6 In 1838, Eliza Key's brother-in-law, Thomas Parkin Scott, used funds from her trust estate to purchase 226 acres for her in a circuit court auction.7 The farm stood near Gaithersburg in Montgomery County, and included portions of the tracts "Quince Orchard" and "Peace and Plenty." In 1848, the widowed Elizabeth Scott later bought 142 acres of a tract called "Rawlings Rest" from Zachariah Williams.8

Although Scott did not own slaves in 1840, in 1846 she hired a slave named Harry Mason for the full year. Mason was the slave of Miss Caroline C. Getzendanner, a twenty-four-year-old resident of Allegany County. On June 2, 1846, Harry ran away from Scott's farm. Getzendanner's runaway advertisement described "Mrs. Scott's farm" as standing four miles west of Rockville.9 Scott owned three slaves by 1850, one man and two women. Ten years later, she still owned three slaves, this time two boys and one girl.10

In 1864, Confederate soldiers under General Jubal Early raided John T. DeSellum's farm, Summit Hall, which stood less than a mile from Eliza Scott's residence.11 Early's raid specifically targeted Unionist residents in Maryland, although the Baltimore Sun claimed that some Confederate sympathizers lost property as well.12 So far, no records show Scott's farm as suffering from the raid.

Eliza Scott passed away on April 16, 1866.13 She left her entire estate to her daughter, Elizabeth R. K. Elder,14 who had since moved to St. Louis, Missouri, with her husband, Joseph. Two years later, Elizabeth Elder sold the land to her younger sister, Cecelia A. Fitzgerald, who still lived in Montgomery County.15 Cecelia Fitzgerald's son, Edward Fitzgerald, was the father of the writer F. Scott Fitzgerald.16
 

1.     Alice Norris Parran. Register of Maryland's Heraldic Families: Period From March 25, 1634 to March 25, 1935. Vol. 1 (Baltimore, MD: H.G. Roebuck & Son, 1935) 313.
         Maryland Marriage Record for Phillip Key and Rebecca Sothron, March 4, 1778, St. Mary's County. Jordan Dodd, Liahona Research, comp. Maryland Marriages, 1655-1850. Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004. www.ancestry.com.
        "Tudor Hall (America Felix Secundus)." SM-10. Maryland Historical Trust, Inventory of Historic Properties. www.mdihp.net.
         Earl Arnett, Robert J. Brugger, and Edward C. Papenfuse. Maryland: A New Guide to the Old Line State. 2nd ed. (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999) 13.

2.     Matthew J. Bruccoli and Scottie Fitzgerald Smith. Some Sort of Epic Grandeur: The life of F. Scott Fitzgerald. 2nd ed. (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1981) 503.
        "Tudor Hall (America Felix Secundus)." SM-10. Maryland Historical Trust, Inventory of Historic Properties. www.mdihp.net.

3.     "Tudor Hall (America Felix Secundus)." SM-10. Maryland Historical Trust, Inventory of Historic Properties. www.mdihp.net.
         Arnett, Brugger, and Papenfuse 13.
         Edward S. Delaplaine. "Chief Justice Roger B. Taney--His Career at the Frederick Bar." Maryland Historical Magazine 13.2 (1918): 110.

4.     MONTGOMERY COUNTY COURT, (Marriage Licenses), 1798-1839, Film Reel: CR 8920, [MSA CM724-1]. John Scott and Elizabeth M. Key, July 10, 1816.

5.     Parran 313.

6.     "Scott Family Listing." The Scott Genealogical Quarterly. 6.1 (April 1992): 39.
        MONTGOMERY COUNTY, REGISTER OF WILLS, (Wills), 1858-1872, Liber JWS 1, Folio 197, Film Reel: CR 43-3, [MSA CM756-2]. Eliza M. Scott, November 1, 1864. Probated June 20, 1866.
        BALTIMORE COUNTY COURT, (Marriage Licenses), 1846-1851, [MSA C376-8]. Michael T. Fitzgerald and Cecelia A. Scott, September 10, 1850.

7.     MONTGOMERY COUNTY COURT (Land Records), Liber BS 9, Folio 127, 1838-1839, [MSA CE 148-35.] John Scott, trust, to Eliza M. Scott, trust, September 28, 1838.

8.     MONTGOMERY COUNTY COURT (Land Records), Liber STS 3, Folio 642, 1847-1849, [MSA CE 148-41]. Zachariah Williams to Eliza M. Scott, November 8, 1848.

9.     "$150 Reward." Maryland Journal 20 June 1846: 3. Microfilm Reel: M 7933. MSA SC 3839. Maryland State Archives.

10.   U.S. Census Bureau (Census Record, MD) for Eliza Scott, Slaves, 1850, Montgomery County, Rockville District, Page 15, Line 24 [MSA SM61-168, M 1505-5].
        U.S. Census Bureau (Census Record, MD) for Elizabeth Scott, Slaves, 1860, Montgomery County, District 4, Page 3, Line 24 [MSA SM61-239, M 7230-2].

11.   "Summit Hall (Summit Hall Turf Farm)." M: 21-3. 502. Maryland Historical Trust, Inventory of Historic Properties. www.mdihp.net.
        City of Gaithersburg. Gaithersburg: History of a City (Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2002) 26.
        Murret, Patricia M. "Visitors Get a Rare Look at History Inside Summit Hall Farmhouse." 16 September 2009. Gazett.net. Web. http://www.gazette.net/stories/09162009/montnew211910_32534.shtml.

12.   "The Late Invasion. Devastation in Maryland. The Retreat and Pursuit." Baltimore Sun 16 July 1864: 1. Baltimore Sun Historical Archive. Enoch Pratt Free Library.

13.   John D. Bowman. Guide to Selections from the Montgomery County Sentinel, Maryland, January 1, 1856 - December 31, 1875 (Westminster, MD: Heritage Books, Inc., 2005) 81.

14.   MONTGOMERY COUNTY, REGISTER OF WILLS, (Wills), 1858-1872, Liber JWS 1, Folio 197, Film Reel: CR 43-3, [MSA CM756-2]. Eliza M. Scott, November 1, 1864. Probated June 20, 1866.

15.   MONTGOMERY COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT (Land Records), Liber EBP 5, Folio 291, 1868-1868, [MSA CE 63-15]. Elizabeth R. K. Elder to Cecelia A. Fitzgerald, June 5, 1868.

16.   F. Scott Fitzgerald. Correspondence of F. Scott Fitzgerald (New York, NY: Random House, 1980) 312.
 

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