Captain John McHenry

Description

Oil on canvas portrait painting of "Captain John McHenry" (1791-1822), ca. 1820, by Philip Tilyard. John, born in Baltimore, was the son of Secretary of War James McHenry (1753-1816) and Margaret Allison Caldwell McHenry (1762-1833). His father was a military aide to General George Washington and General Marquis de Lafayette during the Revolutionary War, and the namesake for Baltimore's Fort McHenry. John attended St. Mary's College in Baltimore and studied law, among other civic pursuits. During the War of 1812, he served as an Adjutant in the 5th Regiment Infantry, Maryland Militia. In 1819, he married Juliana Elizabeth Howard (1796-1821), daughter of Colonel John Eager Howard and Margaret "Peggy" Chew Howard, at "Belvidere". John's wife Juliana died just a few months after giving birth to a son in 1820. Two years later, he died of a fever in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania and is buried there at Church Hill Graveyard.