While working at Webster's shop, the young girl met and fell in love with her fellow shop worker, John Ross, the son of an Episcopal minister. Ross's Quaker parents were upset by the relationship and insisted that she end it. They feared that the Quaker community might reject the entire family if Ross married outside her religion. But the strong-willed young woman would not be swayed from her decision. In 1773 John and Betsy ran away and were married. Just as her parents had feared, the Quakers disowned Ross, but her parents were permitted to remain members of the church. Back in Philadelphia, the couple rented a small house, using part of it for a new upholstery business and living in the other rooms.
In 1775 relations between the American colonies and Great Britain, the mother country, were tense. John Ross was a member of a volunteer force of American patriots who had promised to defend the citizens of Philadelphia if British soldiers attacked the city. In December 1775 he was guarding a store of gunpowder when it exploded. Friends brought him home to his wife, who nursed him until he died on January 21, 1776.
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