The grave of Captain Samuel Selden (who died in 1745 at age 50) is in Marvin Cemetery on Hamburg Road, a little south of Mt. Archer Road. Lyme’s 18th century headstones are unusual: not a single one features a winged death’s head, usually depicted across New England as a skull sporting a prominent set of grimacing (occasionally grinning) teeth, as depicted in this local news article. Instead of these stark reminders of the terrifying potential of death and the fear of damnation, Lyme residents chose to grace their headstones with more comforting images of cherubic-faced winged angels. Some of those angels, like Captain Selden’s, are arguably transitional between skulls and cherubs: note its bony chin and staring pupil-less eyes – or are they empty eye sockets? While we might find the central image unsettling, the floral motif along the edges suggests eternal life and the soul’s reconstitution on the Day of Judgement.

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