Betsy Ross

Elizabeth Griscom "Betsy" Ross (January 1, 1752 – January 30, 1836), née Griscom, also known by her second and third married names, Ashburn and Claypoole, is widely credited with making the first American flag. According to family tradition, upon a visit from General George Washington, commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, in 1776, Ross convinced George Washington to change the shape of the stars he had sketched for the flag from six-pointed to five-pointed by demonstrating that it was easier and speedier to cut the latter. However, there is no archival evidence or other recorded verbal tradition to substantiate this story of the first American flag, and it appears that the story first surfaced in the writings of her grandson in the 1870s (a century after the fact), with no mention or documentation in earlier decades.

Betsy Ross was born on January 1, 1752, to Samuel Griscom (1717–93) and Rebecca James Griscom (1721–93) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Betsy was the eighth of seventeen children, of whom only nine survived childhood. A sister, Sarah (1745–47), and brother, William (1748–49), died before Elizabeth ("Betsy") was born (another sister, Sarah Griscom Donaldson (1749–85), was named after the earlier deceased Sarah). Betsy was just five years old when her sister Martha (1754–57) died, and another sister, Ann (1757–59), only lived to the age of 2. Betsy also lost brothers Samuel I (1753–56) and Samuel II (1758–61), who both died at age three. Two others, twins, brother Joseph (1759–62) and sister Abigail (1759–62), died in one of the frequent smallpox epidemics in the autumn of 1762. She grew up in a household where the plain dress and strict discipline of the Quakers dominated her life. She learned to sew from great-aunt Sarah Elizabeth Ann Griscom. Her great-grandfather, Andrew Griscom, a member of the Quakers and a carpenter, had emigrated in 1680 from England.

After her schooling at a Quaker-run state school, her father apprenticed her to an upholsterer named William Webster. At this job, she fell in love with fellow apprentice John Ross (nephew of George Ross Jr, signer of the United States Declaration of Independence), who was the son of the Rev. Aeneas Ross (and his wife Sarah Leach), an Anglican (later Episcopal) priest and assistant rector at the historic city parish of Christ Church. The young couple eloped in 1773 when she was age 21, marrying at Hugg's Tavern in Gloucester City, New Jersey.

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