PRINCE HENRY, FIRST SINCLAIR OF ORKNEY,
BORN IN SCOTLAND, MADE A VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY
TO NORTH AMERICA IN 1398. AFTER WINTERING
IN NOVA SCOTIA HE SAILED TO MASSACHUSETTS,
AND ON AN INLAND EXPEDITION IN 1399
TO PROSPECT HILL TO VIEW THE SURROUNDING
COUNTRYSIDE, ONE OF THE PARTY DIED. THE
PUNCH-HOLE ARMORIAL EFFIGY, WHICH ADORNS
THIS LEDGE IS A MEMORIAL TO THIS KNIGHT.
Now why haven't I seen The Westford Knight? Dick Eastman posted an article about it yesterday (Nov. 2009) in his Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter, full article for Plus subscribers, see:http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2009/11/-the-westford-knight-1.html There have been many newspaper articles and blog postings about it.
On April 11, 2014, Dick Eastman wrote another piece about the Westford Knight. See: http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2014/04/knights-in-shining-armor-in-the-1300s-in-massachusetts.html
Per The Westford Museum, "According to one account the first Europeans to reach Westford were part of an expedition led by Prince Henry Sinclair, of Scotland. This voyage would have reached the New World in about 1400 A.D. The "Westford Knight" would then be a grave marker for one of the expedition who died near-by. The carvings can be seen as a picture of the Knight, complete with sword."
UPDATE: News article dated June 13, 2015 from the Lowell Sun.
UPDATE: On July 3, 2015, I returned to the site and took additional photos. There is now "a new glass covering for the carving, new landscaping, posts and a retaining wall, and a new lifesize bronze sculpture of the knight."
