When was betsy ross born

This talent naturally allowed Griscom to gain an apprenticeship under an upholsterer in Philadelphia after finishing her primary education from a Quaker school.

During her apprenticeship in Philadelphia, Elizabeth met John Ross at an Anglican church and the two soon fell in love. The couple ran away to get married in As a result of marrying out of the Quaker faith, the now Elizabeth Ross was shunned by her family. However, the Ross's soon opened up their very own upholstery shop in Philadelphia and continued their new Anglican faith together, even meeting soon-to-be prominent Founding Fathers including George Washington who attended the same church as Ross when he was away from Mount Vernon and his home parish.

When war broke out in , the patriotic fervor in Philadelphia washed over the Ross household and John guarded ammunition stores as part of his role in the local militia while Elizabeth manufactured items like tents, clothing, and blankets for the American cause. However, two months after the start of the war John Ross was killed guarding the munitions depot from the British and left the year-old Elizabeth Ross to continue the war effort alone.

Nevertheless, Betsy Ross persevered and continued to make materials for the American war effort. In fact, in , Ross was tasked with making flags, ensigns, and banners for the Pennsylvania Navy and their gunboats. Around this time, Ross married Joseph Ashburn, a private sailor with strong patriot sentiments.

However, this marriage was short-lived as Ashburn was captured in by the British Royal Navy and was convicted of treason due to his role in the American Revolution. After being sentenced to prison in England, Ashburn died in captivity.

After the war, Ross resumed her upholstery and seamstress shop that was later passed down to her children upon her death in John Ross was also a member of the Pennsylvania militia. After three years of marriage, John Ross passed away. At years-old, Betsy Ross became a widow. She continued to run the upholstery business and worked on uniforms, tents, and flags for the Continental Army. Washington and the two other members of the Continental Congress brought a rough sketch of a flag with thirteen red and white stripes and thirteen six-pointed stars.

Ross suggested that the six-pointed stars be changed to five-pointed stars because they were easier to make. The men agreed to change the design. Ross is said to have made the first American flag shortly after that meeting. Ross continued working as a seamstress and upholsterer for many years.

She married her second husband, Joseph Ashburn on June 15, They had two daughters, but their first daughter died at nine months old. Ashburn was a merchant sailor during the Revolution and a British warship captured his ship in He was sent to prison and he died in May of of an unknown illness.

Later that year, a fellow prisoner named John Claypoole visited Ross to tell her that Ashburn passed away. Claypoole and Ross became friends and got married a year later. They enjoyed a year marriage and had five children. Unfortunately, after years of poor health, Claypoole died in Ross continued to work in her shop until she retired at the age of By , she was completely blind, but she continued to tell the story of how she made the first American flag to her children and grandchildren.

She died peacefully in her sleep on January 30, , a few weeks after her 84th birthday. He presented a paper to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania recalling the story his grandmother told him. Despite a lack of credible evidence to support it, legend holds that President George Washington requested that Ross make the first American flag. Ross, best known for making the first American flag, was born Elizabeth Griscom in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on January 1, A fourth-generation American, and the great-granddaughter of a carpenter who had arrived in New Jersey in from England, Ross was the eighth of 17 children.

Like her sisters, she attended Quaker schools and learned sewing and other crafts common in her day. After Ross completed her schooling, her father apprenticed her to a local upholsterer, where, at age 17, she met John Ross, an Anglican.

The two young apprentices quickly fell for one another, but Ross was a Quaker, and the act of marrying outside of one's religion was strictly off-limits. To the shock of their families, Ross and John married in , and she was promptly expelled from both her family and the Friends meeting house in Philadelphia that served as a place of worship for Quakers.

Eventually, the couple opened their own upholstery business, drawing on Ross' deft needlework skills. In , at the start of the American Revolution, John was killed by a gunpowder explosion while on militia duty at the Philadelphia waterfront. Following his death, Ross acquired his property and kept up the upholstery business, working day and night to make flags for Pennsylvania. A year later, Ross married Joseph Ashburn, a sailor.

Joseph, however, also met an unfortunate end. In , the ship he was on was captured by the British and he died in prison the next year. In , Ross married for a third and final time.