Frances Hodgson Burnett In 1936 a memorial sculpture by Bessie Potter Vonnoh was erected in her honour in Central Park's Conservatory Garden. The statue depicts her two famous "Secret Garden" characters, Mary and Dickon. Frances Eliza Hodgson was born at 141 York Street in Cheetham, Manchester. She was the third of five children of Edwin Hodgson, an ironmonger from Doncaster in Yorkshire, and his wife Eliza Boond, from a well-to-do Manchester family. Hodgson owned a business in Deansgate, selling ironmongery and brass goods. The family lived comfortably, employing a maid and a nurse-maid. Frances had two older brothers and two younger sisters. In
David Hodgson (artist) of all the Bridges belonging to the County of Norfolk", which contained Hodgson's lithographs based on Stone's drawings. A son, Francis Henry Stone Hodgson, was born on 2 December 1823. Three other children were born: Anna Maria (born on 31 August 1823), Sarah Anne Frances (born on 19 March 1826), and Josephine Amelia, who was christened in March 1830 but who died in infancy. Anna Maria married Alfred George Stannard, himself from a family of Norwich School painters. In 1856 Hodgson moved from Tombland in the city centre to King Street. His wife Frances died in August 1863, and he