Of all the figures associated with the founding of America, few are more shrouded in lore than Betsy Ross, the purported creator of the first American flag. 

But what is fact and what is fiction about this American icon? 

It is established historical fact that Elizabeth Griscom Ross, known as “Betsy” to her friends, was  a seamstress and an upholsterer in the 1770s. Born in an abolitionist Quaker family, she was the eighth of seventeen children, attended a Quaker school, and was then apprenticed to an upholsterer. It was during this apprenticeship that she met John Ross.

However, John was Anglican, and as a Quaker, Betsy was not supposed to marry outside her faith. Clearly deeply in love, they eloped when she was 21, which led to her expulsion from the church. As a member of the local patriot militia, he was guarding an ammunition cache when he was killed not 36 months later, his life lost while defending the fledgling American cause.

Now a young widow trying to run her own upholstery business alone, Betsy earned extra money through seamstress work. There were no children from her marriage. 

According to history (and lore), just months after John was killed, Betsy was apparently asked to make a flag with 13 stars and stripes. Although the story has never been conclusively proven or disproven, if it did occur it had to have happened in May or June of 1776.

George Washington reportedly visited her along with two other men, Robert Morris and George Ross. Betsy would have known George Ross because he was John’s uncle, and she would have known Washington because her pew in Christ Church (where she became a member) was right next to his. Further adding credence to this version of the story, in 2014 curators at Washington’s Mount Vernon estate found a receipt for bed furnishings paid to a “Mr. Ross of Philadelphia” dated 1774, proving Washington and Ross were in fact acquainted.

According to Betsy’s daughter, “she was previously well acquainted with Washington, and that he had often been in her house in friendly visits, as well as on business. That she had embroidered ruffles for his shirt bosoms and cuffs, and that it was partly owing to his friendship for her that she was chosen to make the flag.”

Washington reportedly had a sketch in his pocket of his flag design featuring thirteen stars and stripes. The stars in Washington’s sketch had six points. Betsy suggested making a change, as she demonstrated how she could cut a five-point star with just one snip of her scissors. Everyone agreed that her star would work for the new American flag. 

As fate would have it, Betsy also lost her second husband during the American Revolution. She had married a mariner, Joseph Ashburn, in 1777. But in 1780 his ship was captured by a British frigate, and he was taken to a prison in England, where he died before he could return home. Making the tale even sadder, Joseph never knew that his first daughter died at only 9 months old. And, he never met his second daughter, born while he was in prison.

Late in 1782, Betsy received a visitor by the name of John Claypoole, who had been a prisoner with Joseph. He had come to tell Betsy that she was a widow again. However, the two became close, and married in May 1783. 

Claypooel’s diary was rediscovered this year. In it, he wrote of his capture by the British while a privateer at sea, being charged with high treason for “being found in arms and in open rebellion” against the king, and his time at Old Mill Prison near Plymouth. He wrote about the hardships of life in captivity; about another inmate’s escape attempt that ended with the man being shot; about watching, in March 1782, as “M. Joseph Ashburn departed this life after an illness of about a week which he bore with amazing fortitude & resignation,” about Betsy’s then-husband’s death. 

A bible belonging to Claypoole was recently discovered as well, and it documents how important the Revolution was to new Americans.  Two entries in the Claypoole Bible particularly illuminate the family’s commitment to the American experiment. The first notes the Ross-Claypoole union: “John Claypoole and Elizabeth were married the 8th day of May in the year of our Lord 1783 and in the 8th year of Independence of the United States of America.”

The second entry records the birth of a son to John Claypoole’s sister: “Alexander Trimble, son of James and Clarissa Sidney Trimble Born the 20th of March 1783, 12 minutes before ten o’clock PM (being the day that Hostilities ceased between the United States of America and Great Britain, after a long and cruel war.)”

Betsy and Claypoole had a solid 34-year marriage, but she ultimately outlived him as well. She eventually became blind, and spend her last three years living with one of her daughters. 

Elizabeth — Betsy — died peacefully in her sleep in her own bed at the age of 84, an almost unheard of lifespan for that time.

Regardless of the veracity of the story of her being the source of our first national flag, there is no denying Betsy Ross’ impact on and from the American Revolution. For that if nothing else, she has earned and deserves an esteemed place in our national history.