Betsy Ross was born on January 1, 1752, to Samuel Griscom (1717–93) and Rebecca James Griscom (1721–93) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Betsy was the eighth of seventeen children, of whom only nine survived childhood. A sister, Sarah (1745–47), and brother, William (1748–49), died before Elizabeth ("Betsy") was born (another sister, Sarah Griscom Donaldson (1749–85), was named after the earlier deceased Sarah). Betsy was just five years old when her sister Martha (1754–57) died, and another sister, Ann (1757–59), only lived to the age of 2. Brothers Samuel I (1753–56) and Samuel II (1758–61) both died at age three. Two others, twins, brother Joseph (1759–62) and sister Abigail (1759–62), died in one of the frequent smallpox epidemics in the autumn of 1762. She grew up in a household where the plain dress and strict discipline of the Quakers dominated her life. She learned to sew from great-aunt Sarah Elizabeth Ann Griscom. Her great-grandfather, Andrew Griscom, a member of the Quakers and a carpenter, had emigrated in 1680 from England.
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