Frank(lin) Views podcast features thought leaders across disciplines on themes associated with Benjamin Franklin – the great diplomat, writer, inventor, scientist and more – including leadership, the purpose of history, modern day publishing, and diplomacy.
Meet Benjamin Franklin House’s Chairman, John Studzinski, as he talks our Founding Director, Márcia Balisciano.
Frank(lin) Views podcast features thought leaders across disciplines on themes associated with Benjamin Franklin – the great diplomat, writer, inventor, scientist and more – including leadership, the purpose of history, modern day publishing, and diplomacy.
In this episode of Frank(lin) Views, French Diplomat, Gérard Errera speaks with our Founding Director, Márcia Balisciano.
Frank(lin) Views podcast features thought leaders across disciplines on themes associated with Benjamin Franklin – the great diplomat, writer, inventor, scientist and more – including leadership, the purpose of history, modern day publishing, and diplomacy.
In this episode, we meet Jonathan Fanton, who served as President of American Academy of Arts and Science from 2014-2018.
With a visit to the Benjamin Franklin House, history comes alive! We offer an immersive experience that tells the rich story of Franklin in London through live interpretation, sound, lighting, and visual projection.
Entering Craven Street from the hustle and bustle of a 21st century Strand, you are immediately transported to Franklin’s 18th century London. A true hidden gem!
Franklin was a huge advocate of education for all! Benjamin Franklin House offers an accessible and enjoyable way to refresh all you learnt about Ben in High School. Connect with us on social media to learn more about Franklin’s life through short and digestible content.
Find out why 1200 human bones were discovered buried in our garden…
Looking for a home away from home? Indulge those American roots and find out why Franklin loved this city so much.
Located in Westminster in the centre of London, Benjamin Franklin House is perfect for an off-the-beaten-track attraction amongst local tourist hotspots like the London Eye, Big Ben and Buckingham Palace.
Experience an authentic 18th century London home! Built in 1730, the House retains a lot of its original features that Ben himself would recognise. On Fridays, our Architecture Tours dive deep into its fascinating history.
The Benjamin Franklin House is one exciting spot along the Franklin Trail in London. Central to the trail, come and learn how he lived, conducted experiments for his scientific inventions and negotiated with key figures of the day.
The staff at the Benjamin Franklin House are all Franklin enthusiasts and willing to ask any questions you have!
Learning history helps one reflect on the present day and why certain traditions and
customs exist. Additionally, appreciating history allows one better understand the current
state of affairs and recognise patterns for the future.
Designed to keep Benjamin Franklin’s history alive in the minds of Chicago’s youth, a monument to him stands in the city’s Lincoln Park!
With a big ego and no direct link to the city of St Louis, it’s only fair to assume that Franklin would therefore be rooting for the Cubs.. sorry not sorry.
The MLB London Series is held at London Stadium, June 24-25. Public transport in London is accessible and easy to use and payment can be made using contactless debit/credit cards and mobile devices.
Downloading the app CityMapper makes directions easy for all IOS and Android users. For more directions, see Transport for London’s tube map, bus map, or guidance on cycling in London.
Visiting Benjamin Franklin House? Here’s some handy advice for getting here!
For ballpark inspired food, MLB London Series has partnered up with some great London establishments!
Representing Chicago Cubs, there’s Yard Sale Pizza.
And for St Louis Cardinals fans, check out Patty & Bun.
MLB London Series Trafalgar Square Takeover is a three-day celebration of baseball culture in one of the most iconic spots in the city (and a 2 minute walk from us!)
Visit the Fan Festival page to find out more.
A visit to Benjamin Franklin House is a real home run…
Note: There are several people discussed in this piece who share names. To avoid confusion, whenever possible William Hewson will be referred to by his last name and the Hunter brothers will be called by their first names.
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When you google “Benjamin Franklin” and ‘“bones” most of what you’ll get is tabloid headlines inquiring as to whether or not Franklin was a serial killer. The answer is no. Rather, the bones in the basement of 36 Craven Street were the result of an anatomy school run by William Hewson in what was once the garden.
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William Hewson was born on November 14, 1739, and was one of 11 children, very few of whom survived to adulthood. 1 When he was 20 years old, he moved to London and began to study anatomy under William and John Hunter. 2 When they thought he had learned a great deal, the Hunter brothers allowed Hewson to teach some of the newer students. 3 Hewson worked with William Hunter for a time before the two had a disagreement. 4 The issue largely came down to the fact that Hewson, “…decided to live in a house of his own rather than Hunter’s house/lecture rooms/museum.” 2 Benjamin Franklin played a hand in mediating the dispute and the two were able to reach an amicable solution. 2 Hewson opened his own anatomy school in September 1772 at 36 Craven Street. 4
In 1769, Hewson was awarded the Copley Medal but he was not admitted into the Royal Society until March 8, 1770. 5 According to the Royal Society, “First awarded in 1731…it was initially awarded for the most important scientific discovery or for the greatest contribution made by experiment.” 6
On May 1, 1774, Hewson died tragically of septicaemia. 7 According to George Gulliver, Hewson’s wife, Polly, whom he married in 1770, wrote of him, “A better son and husband, or a fonder father than Mr. Hewson never existed…. Mr. Hewson’s manners were gentle and engaging; his ambition was free from ostentation, his prudence was without meanness, and he was more covetous of fame than of fortune.” 8
William Hunter was born on May 23, 1718. 9 He was the seventh of ten children and the older brother of John Hunter. 10 He began studying at Glasgow University in 1731 with the intention of joining the church but did not graduate. Instead, he studied under Alexander Monro for a year, followed by studying midwifery under William Smellie. 11 Because of his time under Smellie, Hunter, “began building a surgical and midwifery practice, investigating female reproductive anatomy using animals.” 11 He started teaching anatomy lessons featuring human corpses in 1746 and continued doing so until he died. 11
One of his main areas of study was the gravid uterus. 11 In 1750, “Hunter had his first opportunity to dissect a full-term gravid uterus…and was able to determine the relationship between the maternal and foetal blood system in the placenta. This work confirmed that maternal blood reached the placenta but did not pass to the foetus.” 11 His experience and research lead him to be inducted into the Royal Society on April 30, 1767. By that same year, he became physician extraordinary to the Queen. 12 Queen Charlotte was not his only high-status patient; according to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, “…possibly because of his growing midwifery practice among the aristocracy. Hunter certainly seems to have developed personal qualities which brought him patients such as the Pitts, Hertfords, Lady Ossory, the Fitzroys, the earl of Sandwich, Lord North, the Coutts, and the Hollands.” 11
William fully opened his own anatomy school on Great Windmill Street, and “…began lecturing in the new anatomy theatre in 1767, and lived on the site from 1768.” 11He taught there for many years until he died on March 30, 1783, possibly of renal failure. 11 Much of his work became disputed as he did not publish much of it and, “Pupils’ notes of his lectures are the only record of some of his discoveries.” 11
John Hunter was born on February 13, 1728. 13 He attempted to find work in Scotland but ultimately moved to London at age 20 to work with his older brother, William Hunter. 14 John studied at a variety of schools but could not obtain his certification to practice so he took a break from working. He ended up becoming a staff surgeon in the English Army in 1760 and was able to gain a lot of field experience. 15 He wrote a paper called A Treatise on Blood, Inflammation, and Gun-shot Wounds, published posthumously, that detailed a better way to treat gunshot wounds. 16
John enjoyed collecting medical oddities for his personal collection, which totaled over 10,000 items. He made many contributions to science but never published many of his findings. 17 Despite this, he was awarded the Copley Medal in 1787. 18 Before he died in 1793, he requested that “…upon his death two specimens be preserved: his Achilles tendon, which ruptured in 1767 and healed through secondary ossification, and his heart.” 19 Neither of them were preserved. 19 He was originally buried in the Church of St Martin in the Field but was reburied in Westminster Abbey on March 28, 1859. 20
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Many anatomy schools, including William Hunter’s operated through only the winter season as the bodies would decompose to quickly otherwise. 11 According to Roy Porter, “…near the top of the [specialization] list was midwifery, as surgeon-apothocaries discovered that obstetrics paid, for the baby you brought into the world became your patient for life.” 21 Many students went to schools in either London or Scotland but the schools in London were more flexible. 22 These schools led to a number of advancements in the medical field as lecturers demonstrated the techniques they had developed through dissections and practicing on cadavers.
Comparative anatomy was a very common practice. As stated in an article from the Journal of Anatomy, “The animal dissections were noted to have saw cuts in very similar positions to those found in the human skeletons….” 23 Hewson was known to complete experiments utilizing comparative anatomy. A turtle spine and mercury were found within the pit of bones at Craven Street and Hewson was known to have conducted an experiment in 1770 at the Royal Society using the flow of mercury through a turtle to show the lymphatic system.
John Hunter was known for collecting cadavers with medical abnormalities. Ruth Richardson writes of his collection containing, “monstrous births (animal and human) in bottles, the skeletons of physical freaks, a cast of the brain cavity of Dean Swift’s skull, death masks, murderers’ skeletons and relics, and all sorts and conditions of medical prodigies – feet, heads, internal organs – pickled or dyed to show their peculiarities to better effect.” 24
One such example of this was the body of Charles Byrne. He had a tumor that caused him to be abnormally tall, measuring 8 ft. 4 in. by the time of his death. He was part of a traveling exhibition using the title of “The Irish Giant.” 25 When he died at age 22, he wanted to be buried at sea so anatomists would not be able to dissect him but, John Hunter was able to obtain his body for approximately £500. After he was dissected, his skeleton was placed on display. 26 According to the Royal College of Surgeons, when the Hunterian museum reopens,“…Charles Byrne’s skeleton will not be displayed…but will still be available for bona fide medical research into the condition of pituitary acromegaly and gigantism.” 27
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In 1752, the Murder Act was passed, “which allowed for the corpses of executed murderers to be taken to the Company of Surgeons in London for studying and teaching.” 28 Dissection was often viewed as an additional layer of punishment for those who were executed. 29 Sometimes prisoners would sell their bodies ahead of time to do things like pay debts but, “Riots at the gallows often sought to deny surgeons dissection rights over the dead, regardless of whether currency had changed hands.” 30
There were not nearly enough cadavers to supply all of the anatomy schools in London so many surgeons resorted to obtaining bodies from graverobbers, also known as resurrectionists. As Ruth Richardson writes, “…exhumation was not technically a crime of theft; for although dead human bodies were in face bought and sold, in the eyes of the law a dead body did not constitture real property and therefore could neither be owned nor stolen.” 31 Unless the grave robber was caught in possession of the effects of the deceased or had damaged the coffin in some way, they would not be punished by the law. 31
There were some, such as William Burke and William Hare, who took it upon themselves to “create” cadavers for medical schools. Hare ran a lodging house and after one of the lodgers passed away, they sold his body to Dr. Robert Knox for his dissections. After making a profit, they began to murder people by suffocating them. They continued to sell them to Dr. Knox. Their practice continued from November 1827 to October 31, 1828. 32 When they were caught, Hare gave evidence against Burke then left for Ireland. Burke was hung and dissected. Knox’s knowledge of the murders could not be verified so he was not punished. 33
Most of the bodies taken from graves for dissection were those of the poor as their graves were often in mass and their coffins were cheap, making them easy targets. There were often groups of people who would work together to rob graves. They operated with the goal of making it look as though the grave had never been disturbed. They often would not take the bodies of a person who had clearly had an infectious disease. 34 That said, according to Ruth Richardson, Astley Cooper was quoted as saying, “The law does not prevent our obtaining the body of an individual if we think proper; for there is no person, let his situation in life be what it may, whom if I were disposed to dissect, I could not obtain.” 35
The rules around the body trade changed after the Warburton Anatomy Act of 1832. Parliament writes, “…the Anatomy Act of 1832 gave surgeons and their students’ legal access to the bodies from workhouses, hospitals and prisons that were unclaimed 48 hours after death. It was also made possible for a person to donate a next of kin’s body for medical study.” 36
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The bones found in the basement of 36 Craven Street show marks from surgical instruments. There is a femur bone that shows signs of having been amputated and a number of skulls with small circles drilled out, known as trepanning. Many other bones showed signs of having been amputated or cut away to be removed in a particular fashion. 37
When Hewson died, Benjamin Franklin wrote to Deborah of him, saying:
“Our Family here is in great Distress. Poor Mrs. Hewson has lost her Husband, and Mrs. Stevenson her Son-in-law. He died last Sunday Morning of a Fever which baffled the Skill of our best Physicians. He was an excellent young Man, ingenious, industrious, useful, and belov’d by all that knew him. She is left with two young Children, and a third soon expected. He was just established in a profitable growing Business, with the best Prospects of bringing up his young family advantageously.” 38
Margaret Rooke Stevenson was born in 1706. She married Addinell Stevenson, a merchant, but he passed away around 1747. 39 Their only daughter, Mary “Polly” Stevenson was born on June 15, 1739. 40 After Addinell died, Margaret and Polly took up residence at 36 Craven Street in 1748. Very little is known about Margaret’s life until Benjamin Franklin began renting four rooms from her in 1757. He was Margaret’s most famous resident. Margaret took to Benjamin quite well, essentially serving as his society wife by attending functions with him and hosting dinners together. 41 Franklin praised her immensely in his letters, even calling her, “…a certain very great lady, the best woman in England….” 42 When Franklin returned to the United States, their relationship remained quite strong.
When Margaret was widowed, she gained a status unlike any other. As is the case with much of history, women during the Georgian era had limited power on their own. Being a widow was the best-case scenario for many as it granted an unmatched level of independence. While what was available to widows was limited by what their husbands left to them, “Widowhood was, to all intents and purposes, the only period in the life of a woman when she was in control of her own destiny: no longer managed by either father or husband.”43 Many widows made money as landladies because “It allowed them to stay in the family home and provide a little company and social life.”44 Though it was not viewed as the most acceptable profession, it was seen as a somewhat respectable way for widows to make money.
The main draw to becoming a landlady was that it allowed women to make a living in a respectable manner in a world that did not want them to have autonomy. According to Amanda Vickery, Mary Pendarves, who was widowed at age 24 said, “‘My fortune…was very mediocre but it was at my own command.’”45 If a woman could make money, she could support herself and be independent. Because widows had been married at one point, they had an additional advantage over spinster who were, “at best a curiosity, and at worst a problem.”46 The respectable independence that could be established by widows as landladies was unmatched.
The independence that these women had caused many to be fearful. As a result, there were many stereotypes circulated throughout the media about landladies, one of which was that of landladies as brothel madams or prostitutes. This caricature is portrayed across several different types of media, including many illustrations.47 There is no solid backing to this claim as, “None of these [diaries and journals that belonged to landladies], nor any lodgers whose accounts I have researched to date, mentioned any association between their landladies and the sex trade – even when the landlady was a milliner, the occupation most associated with undercover brothels in novels.”48 A blanket statement cannot be made that there were no instances in which this stereotype was true however, it can be safely assumed that a fair amount of it can be chalked up to a dislike of a woman having autonomy. A common thread throughout history is society being scared of independent women. Having harmful stereotypes against them, such as labeling them objects of sexual desire, would tarnish their reputation and make people afraid of them.
Another assumption made about landladies is that they were nosey. They had the keys to the house and could go about the space as they pleased. The landlady was often the only person with a key to the rooms so she would have been able to traverse the rooms as needed or as she pleased. There was a chance that a lodger would have access to a key for their rooms as well but it was not overly common.49 With the landlady generally being the only person to have the key, it is understandable that people might find them suspicious. In a society that thrived on a patriarchal hierarchy, having a woman in a position of power such as a business owner in the way that the landladies were, would have lead to some uneasiness about what they had the ability to do.
Despite these stereotypes, lodging houses were fairly nice places to live. A common theme across many pieces of research is the creation of a domestic community. Seeing as many landladies were single women, having lodgers to share a common space would have been given them social interaction and a sense of community within their own homes.50 For the lodgers, renting out rooms, “…was also carefree, avoiding responsibility for home maintenance and liability to serve in parish office or pay most taxes.”51 For the most part, rooms on the ground floor were used for visitors while the owner of the house would live on the middle floors. 52 At 36 Craven Street, this was very much the same. On the bottom floor, were Margaret Stevenson’s parlour and a cardroom in which she allowed Franklin to host guests. He rented four rooms within the house and was quite social with Margaret and her daughter Polly.
Becoming a widow and making a living as a landlady was liberating for many women. Widowhood was one of the few ways a woman like Margaret Stevenson could be independent, still maintain some sort of social standing, and continue to be seen as respectable without a husband. Supporting themselves by renting rooms was a simple way to earn money and give themselves a place within society.
By Charlotte Frick
22 March 2023
All at Benjamin Franklin House were deeply saddened to learn of the death of our friend and supporter David O. Brownwood, the first Chair of the US Benjamin Franklin House Foundation.
David received his A.B. with distinction from Stanford University in 1956 and went on to serve in the U.S. Air Force as a fighter pilot in the Air Defense Command until 1961. Flying remained a passion for David, even after his active duty. He attended Harvard Law School, receiving his LL.B. magna cum laude in 1964. From 1966 to 1967, he taught law at the University of Khartoum in the Sudan and from 1967 to 1968 at the Kenya Institute of Administration. Upon returning to the United States, he joined the New York-based law firm of Cravath, Swaine and Moore LLP and became a partner in 1973, focusing his practice on corporate finance, becoming Senior Counsel in 2003.
David was always insightful, effective, warm, encouraging and kind. He will be deeply missed. We extend our sympathy to his wife Bo, his children and grandchildren.
