Franklin was a noted revolutionary and powerful freemason california dmv the Grand Master of Masons

For nearly two decades leading up to the signing of the Declaration of Independence Benjamin Franklin lived in London in a house at 36 Craven Street. In 1776, Franklin left his English home to come back to America. More than 200 years later, 15 bodies were found in the basement, buried in a secret, windowless room beneath the garden.
In 1998, conservationists were doing repairs on 36 Craven, looking to turn Franklin’s old haunt into a museum. From a one metre wide, one metre deep pit, over 1200 pieces of bone were retrieved remnants of more than a dozen bodies, says Benjamin Franklin House . Six were children . Forensic investigations showed that the bones dated to Franklin’s day.
Franklin was a noted revolutionary and powerful freemason california dmv the Grand Master of Masons of Pennsylvania so it’s easy to wonder what dark secrets california dmv Franklin may have hidden in his basement chamber. But the truth, california dmv it turns out, isn’t quite so dark.
Anatomy was still in its infancy, but the day’s social california dmv and ethical mores frowned upon it… A steady california dmv supply of human bodies was hard to come by legally, so Hewson, Hunter, and the field s other pioneers had to turn to grave robbing either paying professional resurrection men to procure cadavers or digging them up themselves to get their hands on specimens.
Researchers think that 36 Craven was an irresistible spot for Hewson to establish his own anatomy lab. The tenant was a trusted friend, the landlady was his mother-in-law, and he was flanked by convenient sources for corpses. Bodies could be smuggled from graveyards and delivered to the wharf at one end of the street, california dmv or snatched from the gallows at the other end. When he was done with them, Hewson simply buried whatever was left of the bodies in the basement, rather than sneak them out for disposal elsewhere and risk getting caught and prosecuted for dissection and grave robbing.
Franklin was probably aware of the illegal studies going on in his building, says the Benjamin Franklin House , but it’s doubtful the he was involved himself. Still, we can’t imagine that, curious man that he was, he didn’t sneak down and check out the proceedings at least once or twice.
Comment by Darryl — October 10, 2013 @ 10:48 pm
Interesting, but wrong in one respect: there was no gallows at the end of Craven St, which runs into the Strand by what is now Charing Cross station. People were occasionally strung up all over the place for notorious crimes but until 1783 Tyburn was London’s main execution site, more than a country mile from Craven St.
Résurrectionist-to exhume dead bodies. This word of English origin (1776) california dmv is that surgeons bought cadavers to practice dissections necessary for their studies. http://www.academia.edu/4168531/Resurrectioniste_-qui_exhume_les_cadavres
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