William Grayson

This article is about the U.S. Senator from Virginia. For the congressman from South Carolina, see William John Grayson.

William Grayson (1740 - 12 March 1790) was an American politician of the Anti-Federalist faction.

Grayson was born in Virginia in 1740. He attended the University of Pennsylvania and Oxford University, studying classics. He practiced law in Dumfries, Virginia until the American Revolutionary War began. Serving as an aide-de-camp to George Washington, Grayson rose to the rank of colonel.

He was a delegate to the Continental Congress from 1785 to 1787. He was then appointed to the United States Senate, and served from 4 March 1789 until his death on 12 March 1790. He was also an original member of the Society of the Cincinnati.^{[citation needed]}

His wife was Eleanor Smallwood, a sister of Maryland Governor William Smallwood. Grayson was the grandfather of William Grayson Carter, Kentucky state senator, and Confederate General John Breckinridge Grayson (General J.B. Grayson was also the grandson of Virginia/Kentucky Senator John Breckinridge (1760-1806) of the Breckinridge political family and related to Senators Henry Clay and Thomas Hart Benton (senator)).