Ross, Betsy

Ross, Betsy (1752–1836) seamstress and war hero. Born Elizabeth Griscom in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she married John Ross, an Anglican, in 1773 and as a result was expelled from her native Quaker church. John Ross was killed in a gunpowder explosion in January 1776, leaving his upholstery business to his wife, a skilled seamstress. She later remarried, was widowed, and married a third time. Betsy Ross is the subject of a cherished American legend according to which George Washington, representing the Continental Congress, visited her husband's shop in the summer of 1776 and commissioned her to make the first American flag, which is said to be partly of her design. This story was apparently first told by her grandson in 1870 at a meeting of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. In fact, there is little to support its veracity. Washington was at the front when he is supposed to have visited Ross in her Philadelphia shop, and the design of the flag was not fixed that early in the nation's history. However, Betsy Ross did in fact make flags for the new nation; in 1777 Ross received payment of £;15 from the Pennsylvania State Navy Board for making ships' flags.