Friends or Strangers?
It can be assumed that Betsy Ross and George Washington had a known each other prior to her being asked to make the flag. One of Betsy Ross’s daughters, Rachel Claypoole, claimed that they were friends, “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.” [15] Rachel was saying that her mother and Washington were friendly and did business with each other before he asked her to make the flag.[16] Other evidence says that George Washington was passing through Philadelphia, and on his way he stopped by Betsy’s shop to obtain items he needed before leaving.[17] Also it has been said that George Washington, Robert Morris, and George Ross approached Betsy unexpectedly at her shop and asked her to help them by making the flag. [18] Betsy supposedly made the flag in her widowhood, before the Declaration of Independence. [19] According to Betsy’s daughter, Rachel, Mrs. Ross was chosen to make the flag, because of her friendship with George Washington.[20] Her daughter also said “That other designs had also been made by the committee and given to other seamstresses to make, but that they were not approved”. Meaning that other women were selected to create flags, but Betsy’s was selected and theirs were not. As well as “That when the committee (with General Washington) came into her store she showed them into her parlor, back of her store; and one of them asked her if she could make a flag and that she replied that she did not know but she could try.”[21] Other sources said that the decision to have Mrs. Ross create the flag was simple, because her husband was an upholsterer and she was a patriot. [22]