The Reverend William Mason was a writer, artist and garden designer active in the mid- to late-18th century. He entered the Church in 1754 and took on the living of Aston, near Sheffield, England.
In 1775 he designed an informal flower garden for his friend Lord Harcourt at Nuneham, near Oxford, England. The garden at Nuneham was highly influential, and Mason spread his ideas further through his poem, The English Garden, published between 1772 and 1781.