ABSTRACT
Elizabeth Griscom Ross Ashburn Claypoole (1752-1836) (known as Betsy to family and friends, and thrice married and widowed) was for many years an upholsterer and flag maker in Philadelphia. Documents
do indeed exist showing that she made a flag for the Navy during the Revolutionary War. An account of her meeting with then Colonel George Washington, Robert Morris, and Colonel George Ross in 1776 (for which no known official documentation exists) was first publicly delivered in a March 1870 speech by one of her grandsons, William B. Canby (18251890), before The Historical Society of Pennsylvania. This speech was followed shortly afterward by affidavits concerning the meeting by one of Betsy’s daughters, Rachel Fletcher (1789-1823), in July 1871; one of her granddaughters, Sophia B. Hildebrandt (1806-1891), in May 1870; and one of her nieces, Margaret Donaldson Boggs (1776-1876), in June 1870. Harker points out another written source for the flag story: a letter in 1903 from Rachel Albright (a granddaughter of Betsy) to a friend, Nellie E. Chaffee, whose daughters were interested in Betsy’s life story [Harker 05]. The letter is archived in the American Flag House and Betsy Ross Memorial in Philadelphia. Collectively, the Canby speech, the three affidavits, and Rachel Albright’s letter state that the meeting occurred in the year 1776, shortly before the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and that Betsy suggested changes in the flag design initially proposed by Washington. Boggs, Canby, and Albright all explicitly refer to Betsy’s fold and one-cut five-pointed star. Fletcher’s affidavit states that Betsy proposed a 4 × 3 rectangular rather than a square flag shape and an arrangement for the stars in lines or in some adopted form as a circle, or a star. The full texts of the Canby speech and the three affidavits are available online [Independence Hall 10]. Demaine and Demaine [Demaine and Demaine 04] and Demaine and O’Rourke [Demaine and O’Rourke 07] reference an article [Wilcox 73] in the July 1873 issue of Harper’s New Monthly Magazine containing the Betsy Ross story described above, with the year of the meeting given as 1777 instead of 1776. Wilcox was probably influenced by the date (June 14, 1777) of the so-called Flag Resolution of the Continental Congress. Harker offers a critical discussion of the significance of this resolution [Harker 05]. It is not evident from the article that the author was aware of the Canby speech and the three affidavits.
