A 3-cent stamp honoring
Betsy Ross was issued in Philadelphia, JANUARY 2, 1952, commemorating the
200th anniversary of her birth.
Born a day earlier, January 1, 1752, to a
Quaker family in Philadelphia,
Betsy was the 8th of 17 children.
Betsy apprenticed as a seamstress and fell in love with upholsterer
John Ross, son of an Episcopal rector at Christ Church and
nephew of Declaration signer, George Ross.
George Ross, the son of an Anglican clergyman, was a delegate from Pennsylvania to the
Constitutional Convention, being elected its first vice-president.
George Ross was a
colonel in the Continental Army and later an
admiralty judge in Pennsylvania where he refused to acknowledge the authority of the Federal court over State decisions.
George Ross' sister married
George Read,
another signer of the Declaration. 
As
Quakers forbade interdenominational marriage,
John and Betsy eloped, being married by
the last colonial Governor of New Jersey William Franklin, the son of Ben Franklin.
John and Betsy Ross attended
Christ's Church with George Washington, Robert Morris, Francis Hopkins, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin.
The Ross' pew, number
12, was next to a column adjoining
George Washington's pew number
56 and not far from
Ben Franklin's pew number
70. 
During the Revolution,
John Ross died when a munitions depot he was guarding blew up.
Shortly after, in June 1776,
General Washington reportedly asked
Betsy Ross to sew an American Flag.
In 1777,
Betsy married sea captain
Joseph Ashburn at the
Old Swedes Church. 
That winter the British forcibly quartered in the home of
Betsy and Joseph Ashburn. 
Joseph Ashburn later sailed to the
West Indies for war supplies, but was captured and sent to
Old Mill Prison, where he died in 1782.
Fellow prisoner
John Claypoole later brought the news of Joseph's death to
Betsy, only to fall in love with her himself.
Betsy married
John Claypoole at
Christ Church, May 8, 1783, and together they had 5 children.
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