Mary (Young) Pickersgill (1776 - 1857)

Born 12 Feb 1776 in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, British Colonial America

Ancestors

Wife of John Pickersgill — married 2 Oct 1795 in St. Paul's Protestant Episcopal Church, Baltimore (Independent City), Maryland

Died 4 Oct 1857 at age 81 in Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Pat Pilling [send private message]

Space: Loudon Park Cemetery, Baltimore, Maryland

Biography

Mary (Young) Pickersgill is Notable.

Mary Pickersgill (born Mary Young; February 12, 1776 – October 4, 1857), was the maker of the Star Spangled Banner Flag hoisted over Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore in the War of 1812. The daughter of another noted flag maker, Rebecca Young, Pickersgill learned her craft from her mother. After the death of her husband, she opened up a business in 1807 making flags for merchant ships that frequented Baltimore Harbor as well as the US Navy and US Army. Her business was so successful that she was able to support her aging mother and a young daughter. She was a social activist who fought to acquire financial assistance and safe housing for under privileged women. Under her leadership, the Impartial Female Humane Society established a home for the elderly which today still serves the aging and is named in her honor (Pickergill Retirement Community).

Her greatest national contribution lies in the fact that she made the 30 X 42 foot American flag that flew over Baltimore Harbor on the night the British attacked the Maryland city during the War of 1812. Major George Armistead commissioned the seamstress to make a flag so large that the British would "have no difficulty seeing it from a distance". Over 400 feet of fabric was used to make the flag. The fifteen stripes were two feet wide and the fifteen stars two feet from tip to tip. In 1813, she was commissioned by Major George Armistead to make a flag for Baltimore's Fort McHenry that was so large that the British would have no difficulty seeing it from a great distance. The flag was installed in August 1813, and, a year later, during the Battle of Baltimore, Francis Scott Key could see the flag while negotiating a prisoner exchange aboard a British vessel, and was inspired to compose the poem "Defence of Fort McHenry", which later became the lyrics for "The Star-Spangled Banner", the United States National Anthem.

Children of Mary Young and John Pickersgill

• Rebecca Flower Pickersgill 1796–1796
• Mary Ann Pickersgill 1797–1797
• Eliza Pickersgill 1799–1800
• Caroline Pickersgill Purdy 1800–1884

Sources

Find A Grave: Memorial #2140 Mary Young Pickersgill "Find A Grave Index," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVJ1-184L : 31 March 2023), Mary Young Pickersgill, ; Burial, Baltimore, Baltimore City, Maryland, United States of America, Loudon Park Cemetery; citing record ID 2140, Find a Grave, http://www.findagrave.com.

SECONDARY SOURCE: Family Tree

• https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/K29N-3TC
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

Mary_Young_Pickersgill Maryland Marriages, 1666-1970", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F4JR-BLK : 16 January 2020), Mary Young in entry for John Pickersgill, 1795.

"United States Census (Slave Schedule), 1850 ", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MVD4-3WH : Wed Oct 04 03:12:15 UTC 2023), Entry for and Mary Pickersgill, 1850.