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To the Memory of
JEREMIAH WADSWORTH, Esq.
Son of the
Revd. DANIEL WADSWORTH &
Mrs. ABIGAIL WADSWORTH
He was born on the 12th of July AD 1743
& died on the 30th of April AD 1804
George Washington made four visits to Hartford during his life, and each time he was entertained at the Main
Street home of Jeremiah Wadsworth. Washington had worked closely with Wadsworth to win the American
Revolution and later to get the fledgling United States government off to a sound start. During the war Wadsworth
assumed the critical responsibility of supplying provisions to Continental Army troops and their French allies. He
was a key player in securing Connecticut's ratification of the U.S. Constitution. This brownstone obelisk has not
been broken off. It was originally made this way to symbolize Wadsworth's death as the cutting down of greatness.
The Reverend Thomas Hooker (1586-1647)
In memory of the REV. THOMAS HOOKER
who in 1636 with his assistant Mr. Stone removed
to Hartford with about 100 persons where he
planted ye First Church in Connecticut
An Eloquent, able & Faithful Minister of Christ
He died July 7th, 1647. AET LXI.
The Reverend Thomas Hooker, considered Hartford's Founding Father, led members of his Puritan congregation
on a 100-mile trek through the wilderness from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to settle Hartford in 1636. A sermon
he preached in 1638 was the basis for the Fundamental Orders, a communal framework of self-government
adopted by the Connecticut River towns of Hartford, Windsor, and Wethersfield, that drew its authority from the
will of the citizenry. The Fundamental Orders were the first written constitution in history. This tablestone dates
from sometime during the first half of the 1700s.
The Reverend Samuel Stone (1602-1663)
An Epitaph on Mr. Samuel Stone,
Deceased ye 61 years of his
Age July 20, 1663
New Englands Glory & her radiant crowne,
Was he who now in softest bed of downe
Til glorious resurrection morne appeare
Doth safely, sweetely, sleepe in Jesus here,
In natures solid art, and reasoning well
'Tis knowne, beyond compare, he did excell
Errors corrupt, by sinnewous dispute,
He did oppugne, and clearly them confute:
Above all things He Christ His Lord Preferd,
Hartford; Thy richest jewel's here interred
The Reverend Samuel Stone fled religious oppression of Puritans in England to come to the New World with
Thomas Hooker. Stone negotiated the purchase of Hartford from the Suckiag Indians, and became one of the
settlement's most influential founders. Upon Thomas Hooker's death in 1647, Stone succeeded him as pastor of
Hartford's First Congregational Church. Tradition says Hartford was named for Stone's native Hertford
(pronounced "Hartford"), England.
Ebenezer Watson (1743-1777)
MR. EBENEZER WATSON
Printer, who Died Sept. 16th 1777,
AET 33 His heart was benevolent, he
was kind to the distressed & an
advocate of the injured his life
exhibited the Marks of an honest
Man Friendship to the rights of
human nature At his death which
happened in the years of vigor &
usefulness he received the distinguished
Eulogy the undissembled grief
Of a numerous Acquaintances
Man cometh forth like a flower & is
cut down, he flieth away as a shadow
& continueth not
Ebenezer Watson boldly championed America's struggle for independence from Great Britain in his weekly
Connecticut Courant newspaper, founded in 1764. For a time during the American Revolution the Courant's
circulation was the largest of any newspaper in the nation. When Watson died of smallpox in 1777, his
27-year-old widow, Hannah Bunce Watson, continued issuing the Courant, becoming one of the first woman
publishers in America. Today the Connecticut Courant lives on as the Hartford Courant, which proudly proclaims
itself "America's oldest continuously published newspaper."
Phenias Willson (1628-1692)
ANO DOM
1692
WELLCOME DEATH
PHENIAS WILLSON
AGED 64 YEARS
DYED MAY 22
Phenias Willson of Dublin arrived in Hartford around 1680, making him the community's first Irish immigrant. His is
one of the earliest Connecticut gravestones to depict a skull.
Captain Israel Seymour (1735-1784)
Here Lies Interd the
Remains of Capt. Israel
Seymour who was kill'd
by Lightning Augst. 14th
1784, in ye 49th year
of his Age.
With awful rev'rence GOD adore
Whose holy Hand with Sov'reign pow'r
Did in an Instant stop his Breath
And clos'd his Eyes in Sleep of Death
The literally shocking manner of Captain Israel Seymour's death is conveyed by the image on his gravestone.
Captain Seymour was in his house when, according to the Connecticut Courant newspaper, lightning "struck the
chimney . . . forcing its way through the garret stairs into a closet." The bolt traveled along a stud, "directly over
the front door where Captain Seymour was standing," then into Seymour, killing him instantly. Congregational
ministers pointed to Captain Seymour's unexpected, instantaneous death as a warning to people to repent of
their sins and embrace God immediately, in case they should be called to Final Judgement just as suddenly.
Richard Edwards (1647-1718)
Mary Edwards (1661-1723)
Here lies
Interd ye Body of Mr
Richard Edwa-
rds Who DYed
April 20th
1718 AEtatis
Sue 71
Here lies the Body of Mrs
Mary Edwards Relict of Mr.
Richard Edwards who
Deceased April ye 19 1723
Aged 62 years.
Seventeenth-century Hartford was no stranger to scandal, as the story of Richard Edwards and Mary, his second
wife, vividly proves.
In 1667 Richard Edwards, 20, married 22-year-old Elizabeth Tuttle of New Haven. During two decades of
marriage Elizabeth gave birth to six children. Richard insisted he was not the father of the firstborn, which had
been conceived before their wedding.
In 1689 Richard, now a prosperous and powerful attorney, petitioned the Connecticut General Court for a divorce
from Elizabeth, on the grounds of insanity and adultery. There is evidence that Richard, too, had committed
adultery.
The Court denied Richard's request, but he petitioned again in 1691, claiming Elizabeth had threatened "to Cut
my throat when I was Asleep." Richard had good reason to take his wife seriously, for her family had a history of
homicidal insanity, including a brother who murdered their sister in a deranged fit of anger. This time the Court
granted the divorce.
Within months Richard, 44, wed 27-year-old Mary Talcott, with whom records suggest he had committed adultery.
The couple were apparently able to live down the scandal that preceded their marriage, for both were admitted to
full communion in the First Congregational Church, and Richard later was appointed Queen's Attorney for
Connecticut. Mary bore Richard another half dozen children before his death in 1718.
No one knows where Elizabeth Tuttle Edwards is buried. The only son Elizabeth bore Richard, named Timothy,
became the father of the Reverend Jonathan Edwards, one of the greatest religious figures in American history.
Mary Skinner (1731-1772)
Here Lies Interd ye Body
of Mrs. Mary wife of Mr.
John Skinner, Junr. who
Departed this Life May
ye 23d, AD 1772 in ye
42nd Year of her Age
with 10 of her Children
by her Side who all
Died Soon After they
ware Born
In the 1600s and 1700s, most parents buried at least one, if not more, of their children. Evidence of this grim
reality can be found on gravestones throughout the Ancient Burying Ground memorializing sons and daughters
who died from disease or accidents. Mary Whiting was 17 when she wed John Skinner. During their 24-year
marriage, she bore 12 children, only to watch helplessly as 10 of them quickly died of unrecorded causes that
might have included prematurity, complications of delivery, or congenital defects. Every delivery would have
endangered Mary's life as well, and she may have died during or shortly after the birth of her last child.
Susannah McLean (1711-1741)
Margaret Chenevard (1708-1783)
Maryane Keith (1696-1784)
In Memory of three Sisters, Daughters of
Mr. John Beauchamp late of Hartford dec¹d, viz.
Mrs. Susannah McLean the virtuous Consort of
Mr. Allen McLean, who departed this Life
in Janry 1741 in the 30th Year of her age.
Also
Mrs. Margt Chenevard Relict of
Mr. John M. Chenevard who departed this life
the 18th of March 1783 in the 76th year of her age.
Also
Mrs. Maryane Keith, Relict of Capt.
John Keith who departed this Life the
12th Janry 1784
in the 88th year of her age.
Hartford has been a multicultural community from its earliest days. As a center of international maritime trade, it
attracted immigrants from France, Scotland, and Ireland. John Beauchamp was a Huguenot - a Protestant
refugee from religious persecution in France - who became a prosperous merchant in Hartford. The marriages of
his three daughters to immigrants also involved in the mercantile trade helped strengthen his business. Margaret
Beauchamp was not yet 20 when she wed John Michael Chenevard, a Huguenot refugee more than twice her
age. She survived him by 48 years, never remarrying. Susannah Beauchamp became the wife of Scottish-born
merchant Allen McLean in 1741, and died the following year. Maryane Beauchamp married Captain John Keith,
also a native of Scotland. The Beauchamp sisters' marriages are evidence of a small, tightly knit, prosperous
non-English immigrant community in eighteenth-century Hartford. In an unusual departure from custom, these
three married women were memorialized first as sisters, next as daughters, and last as wives, suggesting they
shared a powerful emotional bond.
William Knox (1732-1787)
W K
In Memory of Lieut. William Knox
who died 30th April 1787 in the 55th Year of his Age.
Born in Strabane in the County of Tyrone in Ireland
Behold my Friend as you pass by
as you are now so once was I:
as I am now, so you must be:
prepare for death and follow me
William Knox lived for more than two decades in Hartford, running "an elegant and well accommodated" tavern.
Yet his Irish roots remained important enough to him to be noted on his tombstone. Knox, who almost certainly
was Protestant, married Jennet Morison, daughter of Dr. Normand Morison, an immigrant from Scotland.
Wyllys Family Monument
Three generations of the Wyllys family held the post of Secretary of the Colony, and subsequently the State, of
Connecticut, for 97 years straight. The Wyllys family estate in Hartford was the site of the ancient, enormous
Charter Oak. In 1662 King Charles II of England issued a Royal Charter granting the Connecticut Colony powers
of self-government that made it all but independent of England. According to legend, when in 1687 a
representative of King Charles¹s successor, King James II, came to take the Charter back, Connecticut leaders
hid it in the Charter Oak.
This tomb is a replica, made in 1899, of the most elaborate type of gravemarker produced in Connecticut in the
1600s.
