Betsy Ross
Betsy Ross (January 1, 1752 - January 30, 1836) was an American woman who is said to have sewn the first American flag which incorporated stars representing the first 13 colonies.
Early years
Born Elizabeth ("Betsy") Griscom in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on January 1, 1752, she was the eighth of 17 children of Samuel and Rebecca Griscom, who were members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) (her father was a master builder). Ross attended Friends (Quaker) schools, where she learned reading, writing, homemaking, and sewing.
First marriage
As an apprentice upholsterer, she fell in love deeply with another apprentice, John Ross, who was the son of a reverend at Christ Church Pennsylvania and was a member of the Episcopal clergy. As the Quakers disapproved strongly of interdenominational marriages, as did her mother and father, the couple eloped in 1773 across the Delaware River to Gloucester, New Jersey, where they were married by William Franklin, Benjamin Franklin's son. John opened up an upholstery shop and the young couple lived on the premises. Their business was badly affected by the American Revolution, with fabric being hard to obtain and business slow. John joined the Pennsylvania militia and was killed in a gunpowder explosion in 1776, after which Betsy took full charge of the upholstering business.
The Betsy Ross Flag had 13 stars and stripes. George Washington said that all stars should be placed in a circle so that no colony would be viewed above another.[1] Historians have found at least 17 other flag makers in Philadelphia at the time. The 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. Canby, in a paper read before the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. No primary sources of the time—letters, journals, diaries, newspaper articles, official records, or business records—have surfaced since 1870 confirming or disproving the story. The only further supporting documentation that Ross was involved in federal flag design is the Pennsylvania State Navy Board commissioning her for work in making "ships colors & c." in May 1777.
Some historians believe it was Francis Hopkinson and not 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 co-designer, along with Pierre Eugene du Simitiere, 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 vertical red and white stripes and 13 five-pointed stars) and a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence.[2]
Subsequent
After her first husband's death, Ross joined the "Fighting Quakers" which, unlike traditional Quakers, supported the war effort. In June 1777, she married sea captain Joseph Ashburn at Old Swedes Church in Philadelphia.
British soldiers forcibly occupied their house when they controlled the city in 1777.
The couple had two daughters together. Captain Ashburn was captured by the British on a trip to procure supplies and was sent to Old Mill Prison, where he died in March 1782, several months after the surrender of General Charles Cornwallis at Yorktown.
In May 1783, Ross married John Claypoole, an old friend who had told her of Ashburn's death. The couple had five daughters together. He died in 1817 after 20 years of ill health. She continued working in her upholstery business until 1827. After her retirement, she moved in with her married daughter, Susannah Satterthwaite, who continued to operate the business.
Ross died in Philadelphia at age 84. Although it is one of the most visited tourist sites in Philadelphia, the claim that Ross once lived at the Betsy Ross House is a matter of dispute.[3]
Interment, re-interment and re-re-interment
Ross' body was first buried at the Free Quaker burial ground on South 5th Street. 20 years later, her remains were exhumed and reburied in the Mt. Moriah Cemetery in the Cobbs Creek Park section of Philadelphia. In preparation for the United States Bicentennial, the city ordered the remains moved to the courtyard of the Betsy Ross House in 1975. However, workers found no remains under her tombstone. Bones found elsewhere in the family plot were deemed to be hers and were reinterred in the current grave visited by tourists at the Betsy Ross House.[4]
References
- ^ Znamierowski, Alfred. The World Encyclopedia of Flags, (2001), p. 113
- ^ http://www.usflag.org
- ^ http://www.ushistory.org/betsy/prove239.html
- ^ Philadelphia Inquirer, "Corrections", November 22, 2005.
External links
- Betsy Ross Homepage from ushistory.org