Mary (Polly) Hewson, daughter of Benjamin Franklin's London landlady, Margaret Stevenson. In 1770 she married Dr. William Hewson, who became a respected London physician and anatomist, but he wounded himself during a dissection in 1774 and subsequently died. Shortly thereafter, Franklin urged Polly, with whom he had a long and warm friendship, to settle in America, but he did not succeed in his efforts until 1786. She was visiting him in Passy with her family in 1784–1785 (Franklin, Papers, 8:122; DNB ).

That is, a concert, composed largely of religious music, given during Holy Week when the theaters were closed (Littré, Dict, de la langue française ).