Name: William Nelson
Location: Middleborough, MA
Date: 1718
Carver: "The First Middleborough Carver"

The carver, name lost to time, got his nickname from scholar Peter Benes. In his book on gravestone carving "The Masks Of Orthodoxy", Benes wrote of how the man was the first gravestone carver local to the town of Middleborugh. His simple designs, making use of a compass, were supposedly inspired by decorations common to furniture of the period.