Cemeteries Offer Wealth of Puritan Folk-art Examples (1993)

A winged soul effigy on the gravestone of Nathaniel Lockwood's in Tomac Cemetery. 

by Jeffrey Bingham Mead
Greenwich Time, Greenwich, Connecticut USA
October 31, 1993

One of the most engaging Puritan-era folk-art expressions that we have in the Town of Greenwich is found in figures carved on local gravestones.

Utilizing images and an ingenuity for design and expression, these ancient depictions remain a mystery to the contemporary visitor of the burial grounds.

Among the most interesting figures are the wind-soul effigies. Though few in number here in Greenwich, this primitive form of portraiture is widely found throughout the rest of New England. The face is carved with some detail and hemmed on either side by a pair of wings. Some stone carvers sought to give meticulous detail to hair and facial features.

The winged-soul effigies are thought to symbolize the soul departing the mortal body and ascending to Heaven. Most examples are unique in style and personality.

An early specimen is found on the partially broken stone of an ancestor of mine, Benjamin Mead, who died in 1746 and is buried in the old cemetery off Strickland Road. Another one of my favorites is at Tomac Cemetery in Old Greenwich. Nathaniel Lockwood, who died on December 22, 1757 at the age of 31, has a well-preserved stone featuring this design.

On Sarah Palmer's gravestone. Tomac Cemetery, Old Greenwich. 

In the heart of Clapboard Ridge is an old cemetery dominated by the brownstone marker for Garrett Schotler, who died in 1781. We know nothing about him as yet; he did not own land in Greenwich yet his stone is the most impressive here. 

Back at Tomac Cemetery in Old Greenwich, there are a series of identical brown stone monuments probably created by the same stone carver  Unlike the others these include a crown above the face. 

Why is this? The crown is a symbol found in biblical passages such as 2 Timothy 4:4-8 which says, "I have fought the good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous Judge, shall give me that day.”

These gravestones mark the burial places of Samuel Peck, Esq., died 1746, and his wife, Ruth, who died at the youthful age of 24 years in 1748.

The winged-soul effigies are vivid reminders of a truly distinctive folk art employed by skilled stone carvers, whose names we at present do not know. Their appearance is a stark but mute reminder of the strong convictions of Greenwich's Puritan antecedents.