Westford Knight

The rock and carving are first mentioned in print in an 1873 edition of the "Gazetteer of Massachusetts" and was described as "There upon its face a rude figure, supposed to have been cut by some Indian Artist.

"[1] In an 1883 town history, the carving is described as "A broad ledge which crops out near the house of William Kitteredge has upon its surface grooves made by glaciers.

"[2] The carving was subsequently interpreted not as a human figure but as a broken Norse Sword by William Goodwin in his book on the America's Stonehenge site.

He argues that the Indian petroglyph described in the 19th century probably existed as did the parallel glacial striations, and that later a metal row or awl was used to punch the partial shape of a sword into the rock, and that "The knight in all his regalia resides only in the imagination of Frank Glynn.

"[6] The current interpretation by those who advocate that the feature on the rock is a human figure is that it commemorates a fallen member of the party of Henry Sinclair, a Scottish Earl from Orkney, whom some believe to have made a voyage to the New World in 1398, traveling to Nova Scotia and New England.