FREDERICK

city, seat (1748) of Frederick county, north-central Maryland, U.S., on a tributary of the Monocacy River 47 miles (76 km) west of Baltimore. Laid out in 1745 as Frederick Town, it was presumably named for Frederick Calvert, 6th Baron Baltimore, although it may have been for Frederick Louis, prince of Wales. The British Stamp Act received its first repudiation from jurists in the Frederick County Court House on Nov. 23, 1765. During the American Revolution, Frederick sent two companies of minutemen to Boston and supplied 1,700 men to support George Washington at Valley Forge. During the American Civil War the Battle of Monocacy (July 9, 1864) was fought to the south of Frederick. Although Confederate forces were victorious, they were delayed there long enough for Union reinforcements to reach Washington, D.C. Following the battle, the city paid a $200,000 ransom to Confederate General Jubal A. Early to avoid its destruction; the last bond on this debt was not redeemed until Oct. 1, 1951. The city is an agricultural trading and small manufacturing centre, with several firms in the area specializing in biotechnology. Fort Detrick, site of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, is also an important part of the local economy. Educational institutions include Hood College (1893), Frederick Community College (1957), and the Maryland School for the Deaf (1867). Francis Scott Key, author of The Star-Spangled Banner, was born nearby and was buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery. Key's brother-in-law, Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney, who delivered the Dred Scott decision (1857) that made slavery legal in U.S. territories, lived in Frederick; his house (1799) contains Taney and Key mementos. Barbara Fritchie's reputed taunting of Confederate General Stonewall Jackson's rebel hordes marching through Frederick was memorialized in John Greenleaf Whittier's poem Barbara Frietchie; her house has been reconstructed as a museum. Inc. 1817. Pop. (1990) 40,186; (1996 est.) 46,227. the usurper of the dominions of his older brother, Duke Senior, in Shakespeare's As You Like It. Because of his illegal acquisition of his brother's power, Frederick is plagued by envy of the love his brother received from his subjects, and by paranoia about his enemies. But he is redeemed at the end of the play. county, northern Maryland, U.S., bounded by Pennsylvania to the north, the Monocacy River to the northeast, Virginia to the southwest (the Potomac River constituting the border), and the Blue Ridge Mountains to the west. It consists of a piedmont region bisected north-south by the valley of the Monocacy. Parklands include Cunningham Falls State Park and Catoctin Mountain (national) Park, site of the Camp David presidential retreat. The Appalachian National Scenic Trail follows the ridgeline along much of the county's western border. The county was created in 1748 and named for Frederick Calvert, 6th Baron Baltimore. Frederick, the county seat, is located a few miles north of the site of the Battle of Monocacy (July 9, 1864) of the American Civil War. Principal economic activities are agriculture (corn , hay, and dairy products) and manufacturing. Frederick has the largest area of any county in the state. Area 663 square miles (1,717 square km). Pop. (1990) 150,208; (1996 est.) 179,327.