Elizabeth Griscom, later known as Betsy Ross, was born on January 1, 1752, in Gloucester City, New Jersey, the eighth of seventeen children of Samuel Griscom and Rebecca James Griscom. Her parents were devout Quakers, and her father worked as a carpenter and builder. The large household emphasized plain living, discipline, work, and the religious practice of the Society of Friends. While Betsy was still young, the family became closely connected to Philadelphia, the colonies’ largest city. She attended a Quaker school, where girls as well as boys learned reading, writing, and arithmetic. At home she acquired sewing and household skills. Her talent with textiles led to an apprenticeship with an upholsterer, probably William Webster. Eighteenth-century upholstery involved far more than covering furniture: workers made bed hangings, curtains, mattresses, cushions, and other fabric furnishings. The trade demanded accurate cutting, strong stitching, design sense, bookkeeping, and familiarity with costly imported materials. During her apprenticeship she met John Ross, an Anglican and fellow artisan. Their courtship violated Quaker expectations against marrying outside the faith. In 1773 they eloped across the Delaware River and married at a New Jersey tavern. The meeting disowned Betsy, cutting her off from the religious community in which she had been raised. The young couple established an upholstery business in Philadelphia and attended Christ Church. John joined the Pennsylvania militia and died in January 1776 after an accident or illness associated with military duty, leaving Betsy a widow in her twenties. She continued the shop independently, a practical necessity that demonstrated the professional competence developed during apprenticeship. Before later tradition credited her with making the first American flag—a claim debated by historians—Ross had already experienced a large Quaker childhood, coeducational schooling, skilled artisanal training, religious separation, entrepreneurship, marriage, and wartime widowhood. Her early life is securely significant as the story of a working Philadelphia craftswoman, regardless of uncertainties surrounding the famous flag legend.