Elisha Amsden

Betsy and Al McKee

Erected to the
Memory of Capt.
Elisha Amsden who
died July 18, 1806
aged 73 Years.

Mortals, how few among our Race,
Have given this Thought its Weight,
That on this fleeting Moment hangs,
Our everlasting State.

At first reading, Elisha Amsden’s epitaph is a fine example of the many elegantly-wrought variations on the “Prepare for death and follow me” theme that recurs so often in these burying grounds. The poem opens by commanding that we Mortals pay attention — a site-specific and appropriate word, because we, the readers, are living persons surrounded by reminders of our mortality. And we are cautioned that we do not pay enough attention to the infinitely important implication of our mortality: that our eternal fate (condition, state) hangs on condition of our soul at the moment of our passing. For our own good, the writer reminds us to give this awesome thought its proper weight, and prepare ourselves for a death that could come at any moment.

In Old Bloomfield CT, the Reverend Hezekiah Goodwin’s epitaph makes the same point in equally fine words: How short, how precarious, how / uncertain is life!  How quick ye / Transition from life to Eternity! / A Breath, a Gaspe, a Groan & lo / We’re seen no more!  And yet on / this point, Oh alarming Thought! / On this slender point / swings a vast eternity.

Rev. Goodwin’s composed his own epitaph; Elisha Amsden’s was written by an English philosopher, classicist, and examplar of piety Ann (or Anne) Baynard (1672-1697). She was erudite, well-educated, and deeply religious. She is known to have written religious texts in both Latin and English, but none appear to have survived. Her own epitaph ends with a Latin phrase: O mortales! quotusquisque vestrum cogitet ex hoc momento pendet æternitas. This text was reproduced in a contemporary biographical essay on Baynard, and also in several 19th century anthologies of epitaphs, accompanied by a translation into English — which is repeated word for word on Amsden’s stone.

I cannot be 100% sure but given the context and what is known of her abilities, I think it is probable that Ann Baynard composed both the Latin epitaph and its translation, and that some version of the text was accessible to Elisha Amsden and his family more than a cent