Frederick (city, Maryland), city, seat of Frederick County, northwestern Maryland, on a tributary of the Monocacy River; settled by 1745, incorporated 1817. It is a trade and shipping center of a rich dairy-farming and corn- and wheat-growing region. Important manufactures here have included electrical and electronic equipment, control devices, biomedical products, hardware, and pumps. Hood College (1893), Maryland School for the Deaf (1867), and a U.S. Army research laboratory are here. The city has several churches dating from the 18th and early 19th centuries. Francis Scott Key, author of “The Star-Spangled Banner;” Chief Justice Roger B. Taney; and Barbara Fritchie, a devoted Unionist during the American Civil War, are buried in Frederick. In 1864, during the Civil War, Confederate General Jubal A. Early extracted a $200,000 ransom from the city before defeating Union forces at the Battle of Monocacy, which was fought nearby. Frederick probably is named for Frederick Calvert, 6th baron Baltimore. Population 28,086 (1980); 40,148 (1990); 52,767 (2000); 57,907 (2005 estimate).
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