Mary Bessborough, 98; helped preserve Franklin's last home

Mary Bessborough, 98, of Center City, a native of Radnor who married a British aristocrat and later started the successful effort in London to preserve Benjamin Franklin's last existing home, died Saturday, April 13, at her home.

Lady Bessborough raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the restoration of Franklin's London residence.

In the 1950s she learned about the house at 36 Craven St. in London when her husband showed her a plaque marking Franklin's residence. Over the years, the home had been damaged and fallen into disrepair.

" 'Blow me down,' I said to my husband," she told an Inquirer reporter in 2005. "I never thought [Franklin] really lived in England."

Mary Munn was born on March 3, 1915, in Radnor. She was the daughter of Charles Alexander Munn of Chicago, a businessman, and Mary Astor Paul of Radnor. She was related to Philadelphia's Drexel and Biddle families.

She was raised in Paris and Palm Beach, Fla. In her teens and 20s, she lived in New York with a sister and worked as a decorator until World War II. She then joined the Red Cross as a nurse's aide.

In 1948 she married Frederick Edward Ponsonby, Viscount Duncannon, a diplomat at the British Embassy in Paris. They had one daughter. Her husband died in 1993.

When his father died in 1956, Ponsonby succeeded him as the 10th Earl of Bessborough and his wife became the Countess of Bessborough. She lived at Stansted Park, an estate in West Sussex, where she oversaw the operation of the house.

Lady Bessborough maintained an interest in politics, world affairs, French culture, and Anglo-American history, said her daughter, Charlotte Petsopoulos.

She was involved in many charitable activities, her daughter said. She was a supporter of Drexel University and the American Philosophical Society.

In the 1990s she helped launch a charity, Friends of Benjamin Franklin House, U.S., based near Independence Hall.

She took on the project because of her love of Anglo-American history and the connection to Philadelphia, her daughter said.

The Franklin House was twice damaged by German bombs in World War II, and it survived an arson in 1983 and flooding in 1987.

The Friends group obtained the title to the property and sought funds from key donors, but big donors did not step forward.

In the mid-1990s, a British banker took over the charity. The group then received a $1.4 million grant. The repairs were completed in 1998, and the house opened to the public in 2006.

"Lady Mary was very concerned that there was only one residence left of Benjamin Franklin's in the whole world," her daughter said. "She said, 'I must do something about this.' "

She moved back to Philadelphia in 2002, living in Rittenhouse Square. Lady Bessborough continued to follow politics and world affairs and indulged her hobby of painting, creating works in oil and watercolors.

Lady Bessborough was a member of the Church of the Holy Trinity at Rittenhouse Square.

In addition to her daughter, she is survived by two grandsons and two great-granddaughters.

A funeral is scheduled for Friday, April 26, at Stansted Park Chapel, West Sussex. A memorial service in Philadelphia is being planned for later this year.

The family requests donations to Drexel University.