Historic Gravestones of Southern New England

The Reverend Gershom Bulkeley of Wethersfield served the town as minister from 1667 to 1677. A respected scholar and a strong Royalist, Rev. Bulkeley was also a noted physician. He served as a surgeon to Connecticut soldiers during King Philip’s War and afterwards left the ministry to practice medicine in Glastonbury. His impressive table stone is carved with the Bulkeley Coat of Arms, featuring three horned cattle surrounding a chevron. Rev. Bulkeley is featured as a character in Elizabeth George Speare’s novel of seventeenth century Wethersfield, The Witch of Blackbird Pond. There are also several interesting articles about Gershom Bulkeley: “The Reverend Gershom Bulkeley of Connecticut, an Eminent Clerical Physician” by Walter R. Steiner (1904), and “The 1699 Diary of Gershom Bulkeley of Wethersfield, Connecticut” (1987) and “A Stranger in the Land: Gershom Bulkeley of Connecticut” (1988), both by Thomas W. Jodziewicz.

Inscription:

Rev. and
Hon. Gershom Bulkley
Died Dec. 2nd 1713, aged 77.
He was honorable in his descent.
Of rare abilities, excellent in learning,
master of many languages,
exquisite in his skill
in divinity, physic and law
and a most exemplary
and
christian life.
In certam spem beatae resurrectionis rep-
ositus.

The second oldest surviving gravestone in Connecticut is that of Leonard Chester, in the Old Burying Ground in Wethersfield. Chester was one of the ten Adventurers, led by John Oldham, who founded the town in 1634. On his stone he is referred to as an armiger, which means someone entitled to use a coat of arms. The carving of Chester’s Coat of Arms features griffins. This stone, like that of Ephraim Huit in Windsor, is a box tomb, and has also been attributed to the carver Matthew Griswold. The stone is still very legible because it has been recarved over the years.Inscription:

HERE LYES THE BODY OF LEON-
ARD CHESTER, ARMIGER, LATE
OF THE TOWN OF BLABY AND
SEVERALL other LORDSHIPS
IN LEISTERSHEIRE DECEASED
IN WETHERSFIELD ANNO
DOMINI 1648. ETATIS 39.

The oldest surviving gravestone in Connecticut is that of Ephraim Huit in the Palisado Cemetery in Windsor. Huit arrived in Windsor in 1639 and was the teacher to the town’s congregation, which had been established in 1635 under Rev. John Warham. It was typical then for the church community to have both a minister and a teacher, whose duty was to explain the doctrines of Christianity. This is an example of a box tomb. No bodies were interred above ground in these boxes, which instead have empty cavities inside. The carving has been attributed to the Matthew Griswold family of carvers. The inscription makes no mention of Huit’s position as a minister or Reverend. This was done as way to protect the tombs of those who had led their congregations across the ocean and away from king and country. (An inscription on the other side, erected in 1842, pays tribute to Rev. Warham).Inscription:

HERE LYETH EPHRAIM HUIT SOMETIMES TEACHER
TO YE CHVRCH OF WINDSOR WHO DYED
SEPTEMBER 4, 1644
who when hee lived wee drew our vitall breath
who when he dyed, his dying was our death
who was ye stay of State ye Churches Staff
Alas the times forbid an Epitaph.