>Date:         Wed, 11 Feb 1998 06:23:57 EST
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>Sender: H-NET/OIEAHC Electronic Association in Early American Studies
>              <[log in to unmask]>
>From: Markman Ellis <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject:      Remains of 10 bodies at B Franklin's home
>To: Multiple recipients of list H-OIEAHC <[log in to unmask]>
>
>For American list members (in the unlikely event that this story is not
>picked up by the American press). The following story appeared in The
>Times today (11 February).
>
>
>************************************************
>
>    WORKMEN have dug up the remains of ten bodies hidden beneath the
>former London home of Benjamin Franklin, the founding father of American
>independence.
>
>    The remains of four adults and six children were discovered during
>the #1.9 million restoration of Franklin's home at 36 Craven Street,
>close to Trafalgar Square. Researchers believe that there could be more
>bodies buried beneath the basement kitchens.
>
>    Initial estimates are that the bones are about 200 years old and
>were buried at the time Franklin was living in the house, which was his
>home from 1757 to 1762, and from 1764 to 1775. Most of the bones show
>signs of having been dissected, sawn or cut. One skull has been drilled
>with several holes. Paul Knapman, the Westminster Coroner, said
>yesterday: "I cannot totally discount the possibility of a crime. There
>is still a possibility that I may have to hold an inquest."
>
>    The principal suspect in the mystery is William Hewson, like
>Franklin a Fellow of the Royal Society, and the husband of Polly
>Stevenson, the daughter of Franklin's landlady, Mary Stevenson.
>
>    In the early 1770s Dr Hewson was in partnership with William Hunter,
>who, with his brother John, was one of the founders of British surgery.
>Dr Hunter and Dr Hewson ran a school of anatomy in Soho, but after a
>argument Dr Hewson left to live in Franklin's house, where he is
>believed to have established a rival school and lecture theatre. Dr
>Knapman added yesterday: "It is most likely that these are anatomical
>specimens that Dr Hewson disposed of in his own house, but we are still
>not certain about the bones' exact age or origin."
>
>    Evangeline Hunter-Jones, deputy chairman of the Friends of Benjamin
>Franklin House, the charity concerned with restoring the property and
>opening it to the public, said: "The bones were quite deeply buried,
>probably to hide them because grave robbing was illegal. There could be
>more buried, and there probably are."
>
>    Brian Owen Smith has volunteered to lead researches on behalf of the
>friends. He said yesterday: "The discovery represents an important
>insight into very exciting years of medical history. Benjamin Franklin,
>through his support for Polly and Dr Hewson, socially and
>scientifically, was very much part of that."
>
>    To the suggestion that Franklin might have been a grave robber, or
>an accomplice to Dr Hewson, Hilaire Dubourcq, of the Friends of Benjamin
>Franklin House, responded: "It is possible that he has an alibi. It
>seems likely that he actually let Dr Hewson have use of the whole house
>for his school for a time, and went up the street to live with Mary
>Stevenson. He did not necessarily know what was happening below stairs
>in the house.
>
>    Dr Hewson fell victim to his own researches at an early age. He
>accidentally cut himself while dissecting a putrid body, contracted
>septicemia and died in 1774, aged 34.
>
>    Franklin, who wrote the opening words to the Declaration of
>Independence, continued to support the widowed Polly, and when he
>returned to Philadelphia he invited her there to live as his neighbour.
>Both her sons became eminent medical men, as have successive generations
>of Hewsons in America.
>
>    If the first Dr Hewson did obtain bodies for his experiments and
>demonstrations by robbing local graveyards, he risked the death penalty
>or deportation. He might have had the help of his students in secretly
>burying the remains beneath the four-storey house, where the dissections
>may have been performed.
>
>   It is hoped to reopen the house to the public at the end of the year.
>Regular visitors during Franklin's residency included Pitt the Elder
>(the Earl of Chatham), Edmund Burke, James Boswell, Adam Smith and
>Thomas Paine, the author of The Rights of Man.
>
>************************************************
>That's all.
>Markman
>
>******************************************************
>Dr Markman Ellis
>Director of Graduate Studies
>School of English and Drama
>Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London
>Mile End, London E1 4NS
>******************************************************
>
>