Martin Mangold, July 11, 2026
“Polly” was the common nickname for Mary, the daughter of Margaret Stevenson, who was Franklin’s landlady on Craven Street when during his adult years in London. Franklin and the young lady had a lifelong friendship and correspondence. It was to Polly that Franklin penned his advice to “read with a pen in your hand” that was the subject of my stained glass window.
Polly married a doctor, William Hewson. Three children followed within five years, when Polly’s husband died from an infection. Polly moved her children to Philadelphia, and she was at Franklin’s side when he died in 1790. WIthin five years, Polly herself had passed away at age 56.
For many years, I’ve wanted to visit the grave of Mary (“Polly”) Hewson Stevenson in Bristol, Pennsylvania. It was clear she was in a particular cemetery there, but FindAGrave was unclear of the exact plot location. The background for the FindAGrave entries was “Genealogy: a Journal of American Ancestry,” by William Montgomery Clemens, 1860-1931 and Lyman Horace Weeks, published in New York by W. M. Clemens, 1912. p. 278.” This citation is clearly online now:
This entry from 1912, if nothing else, was sufficient to start a FindAGrave record and contribute to the general knowledge that Polly was somewhere in St. James’ in Bristol.
Last month, I found myself in the area and finally walked into the Cemetery of St. James Episcopal, ready to find the exact location.
There was a free handout document listing the historic graves in the cemetery, and Polly was listed as #11. I wanted to go directly to her location, so I asked Jim Davis, who was in the cemetery working on renovating some tombstones.
I found it, clearly marked by the walking trail marker, with a mostly illegible stone.
I dropped some flowers, and considered my mission to be accomplished.
I went back to chat with Jim, and learn of his amazing work on old stones, including Julia A. Gilkerson, mother of a pair of children, Robert Hilton Booz and his sister Helen Maud Booz, who died one day after the other in childhood. Jim was repairing a neighboring stone that had broken in half.
I took pictures of the newly-renovated stones and was adding them to FindAGrave when Jim offered to clean the stone of Polly Hewson for me. I eagerly accepted, and sat by the stone as the cleaning solution did its magic and the underlying lettering became legible.
After spraying the back of the stone with a herbicide that immediately and over a few months removes the moss and lichen and other vegetation that has accumulated. Then we moved to the front, and he sprayed the lettering that up till then was illegible.
What emerged was not the stone recorded in Genealogy magazine a century ago, but rather the memorial to Hannah Gill, who died on December 17,1855 at age 85 Years 1 Month and 8 Days (implied birth date: November 9, 1770).
Hannah Gill was long registered in FindAGrave as buried somewhere in this cemetery, and it’s a pleasure to add a headstone picture to her memorial there.
This leaves the question, “where’s Polly?”.
A partial answer came in from a friend of Jim’s in the form of an internal document from the cemetery, mapping the various plots.
Jim reports that this area of the cemetery has few stones in place, but we can hope that one or more of them can be clearly identified, and from there, we can identify where Polly’s grave is located. The neighboring stones shown on the cemetery map include the following names:
- Section E, Plot 21: Mary Hewson
- 17 Mary Johnson
- 20 Alexander Cain
- 22 Unknown (at the time of this diagram)
- 23 Barton family, including Edward
- 24 Wennals
- 75 Ahlee Family:
Ann M.
Charles H.
Franklin H
Samuel H
Wilford - 10 Winterstein
Alfred
Adal
Pauline Conand
Jim Davis hosts a service named Tidy Tombstones, with website www.tidytombstones.com. I can’t express his graciousness, generosity, or my own good fortune to have crossed paths with him. I look forward to further collaboration to locate the grave of Franklin’s friend, Mary (“Polly”) Stevenson Hewson.