William Hewson (244)

Elected to the American Society when it absorbed the membership of the Medical Society.

William Hewson (14 November 1739–6 May 1774) was a physiologist and anatomy professor, and a member of the American Philosophical Society via the absorption of the Medical Society by the American Society in 1768. Born in Hexham, Northumberland to a large family headed by a namesake apothecary and surgeon, his medical studies started in London in 1759, leading him to spend a year at Edinburgh starting in 1761, before continuing his studies in London with Dr. William Hunter. As Hunter’s assistant, he prepared dissections and often lectured in Hunter’s stead—it was in this role that he met APS Member Dr. John Morgan, who likely nominated Hewson to the Medical Society. His research, especially in lymphatic systems in humans and other animals, won him the Royal Society’s Copley Medal in 1769 and election as a Fellow in 1770—a de facto victory in a running dispute with another anatomist regarding who made such discoveries first. Hewson immediately charmed his bride-to-be, Mary Stevenson, at their first meeting, according to her own reportage to longtime friend and correspondent Benjamin Franklin. At the wedding, Franklin gave Mary away, and later served as godfather to their first child. Married life quite suited Hewson, and he resolved to dissolve his partnership with Dr. Hunter in 1772 so he might be more available—the resulting squabble over ownership of the anatomical preparations took Franklin’s arbitration to resolve. Hewson turned to lecturing, midwifery, and surgery, and appeared to have found a favorable balance between work and family life. But in 1774, Hewson cut his finger while dissecting and the wound festered; the resulting infection took his life after ten days, just three months before the birth of his third babe. With an income of her own, Mary persisted and finally emigrated to Philadelphia at Franklin’s urging in 1786; the two sons attended the University of Pennsylvania and one became a physician himself and later president of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. (PI)