One of the earliest surviving cemeteries in New England, Ye Antientist Burial Ground contains graves dating to the late 17th century, with worn sandstone and slate markers bearing the skull-and-crossbones imagery typical of early New England funerary art. The inscriptions, where they remain legible, speak in the blunt theological language of Puritan Connecticut.
The grounds sit on Huntington Street near the old town centre, a short walk from Whale Oil Row. The markers for members of the Hempsted family connect directly to the nearby Joshua Hempsted House. It's a quiet spot and, for anyone interested in colonial history, an unusually evocative one — the stones predate the American Revolution by decades.