Betsy Ross - Early years, First marriage, Subsequent career

Seamstress, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Although she was a well-known seamstress and the official flagmaker for the Pennsylvania Navy, there is no real evidence that she designed or made the first flag of the United States (in 1776). The story was first told in 1870 by a grandson.

Betsy Ross (January 1, 1752 - January 30, 1836) was an American woman who is said to have sewn the first American flag.

Early years

Born Elizabeth ("Betsy") Griscom in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (some believe in Collingswood, New Jersey), she was the seventh of 17 children of Samuel and Rebecca Griscom, who were members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) (her father was a master builder). Betsy attended Friends(Quaker) schools, where she learned reading, writing a trade, and sewing

First marriage

While working as an apprentice upholsterer, she fell in love with another apprentice, John Ross, who was the son of a rector at Christ Church Pennsylvania and was a member of the Episcopal clergy.

Less than two years later, they started their own upholstering business. John joined the Pennsylvania militia and was mortally wounded in a gunpowder explosion in 1776, after which Betsy took full charge of the upholstering business.

Legend of sewing the first flag

According to what her family members said (after her death) that she had told them, in June 1776, she received a visit from George Washington, George Ross and Robert Morris of the Continental Congress. The design had six-pointed stars, and Betsy, the family story goes, suggested five-pointed stars instead because she could make a five-pointed star in one snip.

No contemporary record of this meeting was made. No "Betsy Ross flag" of thirteen stars in a circle exists from 1776 (however, there is an October 1777 account by of a flag with "stars disposed in a circle" at the surrender of Saratoga). The Betsy Ross story is based solely on oral affidavits from her daughter and other relatives, which were made public in 1870 by her grandson, William J. The only further supporting documentation that Betsy Ross was involved in federal flag design is the Pennsylvania State Navy Board commissioning her for work in making "ships colors &

Some historians believe it was Francis Hopkinson and not Betsy Ross who designed the official "first flag" of the United States (13 red and white stripes with 13 stars on a field of blue). Hopkinson was a member of the Continental Congress, a heraldist, a designer of the Great Seal of the State of New Jersey, one of the designers of the Great Seal of the United States (which contains a blue shield with 13 diagonal red and white stripes and 13 five-pointed stars) and a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence.

Subsequent career

After John's death, Betsy joined the "Fighting Quakers" which, unlike traditional Quakers, supported the war effort.

British soldiers forcibly occupied their house when they controlled the city in 1777.

The couple had two daughters together.

In May 1783, she married John Claypoole, an old friend who had told her of Ashburn's death.

Betsy Ross died in Philadelphia at age 84 and was buried at the Free Quaker burial ground. Moriah Cemetery, and today her remains are located in the courtyard of the Betsy Ross House.