Thomas Tickell Hewson (1773–1848), physician, was born in London, where Benjamin Franklin was a family friend. He immigrated to America in 1786, graduated from the University of the State of Pennsylvania in 1789, and went on to study medicine in Philadelphia, London, and Edinburgh. Hewson became prominent in Philadelphia’s medical and scientific community, serving as secretary of the Philadelphia College of Physicians, 1802–35, and as its president from 1835 until his death. He took a leading role in the compilation of The Pharmacopœia of the United States of America (Philadelphia, 1820), the first such American work, and subsequent revisions. Elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1801, Hewson served as a secretary, 1803–17 and 1821–23, and a curator, 1817–21, and corresponded with TJ primarily concerning the society (Franklin Bache, An Obituary Notice of Thomas T. Hewson, M.D. [1850]; APS, Minutes, 17 Apr. 1801, [Jan. 1803], 3 Jan. 1817, 4 Jan. 1822 [MS in PPAmP]).

TJ had transmitted scientific communications from David Bailie warden, William lambert, and John Breck treat to the American Philosophical Society (TJ to Robert Patterson, 31 Aug., 1 Oct. 1809). The enclosed items, not found, were probably printed acknowledgments of thanks “for your assistance, in thus advancing the design of their institution,” with blanks in which a society secretary filled in the particulars of each donation. For an example, see Corresponding Secretary of American Philosophical Society to Alexander von Humboldt: Acknowledgment of Donation, 18 Aug. 1809 (PPAmP: APS Archives).