About the Society
THE MARYLAND STATE SOCIETY, UNITED STATES DAUGHTERS OF 1812
The Kitty Knight Chapter
Contact the President: Mrs. Roger Franks
During the War of 1812, the British invasion also included the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Kitty Knight, daughter of prominent parents in the community and niece of a member of the General Assembly of Maryland and the United States House of Representatives, was described as “beautiful, accomplished and brave.” In a local obituary notice of November 22, 1855, it was printed that “by her heroism at the burning of Georgetown she saved several families from being made homeless and friendless by the fire and sword..” As the forces landed in the Georgetown area of the Chesapeake Bay, Kitty Knight’s appeal to Admiral Cockburn so moved the commodore that he ordered the troops to their barges and left unburned a church and several houses which still stand.
The chapter was organized in 1984 and the Organizing President was Mrs. Robert J. Moore. Kitty Knight is buried in Warwick, Cecil County, Maryland where the Kitty Knight Chapter placed an 1812 marker in August 1985.