William Palmer (1673 - 1739) was an English sculptor and stonemason based in London. He has been described as "one of the most important of early eighteenth-century sculptors" in England, his main works mostly being funerary monuments.[1]
He was born in London the son of William Palmer, a coachman in the parish of St Giles-in-the-Fields. He was apprenticed to James Hardy in 1687 but in 1689/90 transferred to the yard of Josiah Tully. He became a Freeman mason in 1694 and returned to work in Hardy's yard. In 1696 he went to work as an assistant to John Nost.[2]
By 1710 he had his own stoneyard at Red Lion Square. In 1718 he became official mason to Lincoln's Inn and remained such until his death in late 1739. He was married to Anne and was father to the sculptor Benjamin Palmer who took over his father's stoneyard at Gray's Inn.