excerpt
William Nichols (1780-December 12, 1853), an English-born house carpenter, architect, and engineer, worked in North Carolina from 1800 until 1827, during which time he planned and built some of the state's finest and most advanced buildings. The first resident architect in North Carolina since John Hawks, he was also the first North Carolina architect or builder whose practice extended almost statewide, from Edenton and New Bern near the coast to Lexington and Salisbury in the western Piedmont.