Old Center Cemetery
11) SKINNER CHILDREN (MABEL / TIMOTHY / ABIGAIL / JAMES: (1743 / 1750 / 1750 / 1750): Of Timothy and Ruth Skinner's seven children, these four predeceased them. Mabel, who was born in 1743, lived only three months. Timothy, Abigail, and James each died in 1750, at the ages of five and three years, and 18 months, respectively, only days apart, in what was probably an epidemic. The older child in each set of double stones has the larger stone. Timothy Jr.'s is the largest of all, probably because he was the oldest.
12) TIMOTHY SKINNER (1779): The father of the Skinner children, Timothy Skinner, died from dysentery at age 78. The winged cherub on his gravestone represents the flight of the soul heavenward. The phrase "in memory of" is typical of later stones and serves to memorialize the deceased. It implies that the body is not necessarily interred beneath.
13) BENJAMIN COLTON (1759): Colton was the first minister of the Fourth Church of the West Division. He served 46 years, from 1713-1759, until his death from measles in 1759. The ornate, elaborate style of his stone was typical of that commonly made for ministers and important figures of the eighteenth-century community. Like Stephen Keyes' stone, it may represent a self-portrait.
14) CAPTAIN SAMUEL SEDGWICK (1735): Married to Mary Hopkins, Samuel Sedgwick may have been a cooper and/or distiller. West Hartford has both a middle school and road named after this family. There is only one other gravestone similar to his in the cemetery (Nathaniel Smith's) and both have been attributed to an anonymous individual known as the "Glastonbury Lady." The carver acquired this name because he was a popular stonecutter in Glastonbury in the 1730s and many of his best stones were made for women.
15) NATHANIEL HOOKER (1770): Hooker was the second minister of the Fourth Church of the West Division and served from 1759-1770. He was also a doctor, which was not unusual for ministers since they were the best educated men in the community. Ironically, he died at age 32 from mercurial poisoning as he attempted to treat himself for consumption (tuberculosis). He has what is known as a "tablestone." Such stones are raised above the ground on pedestals. His stone is now in two pieces. The pedestals are kept at the West Hartford Historical Society
