Catharine R. Williams (December 31, 1787 – October 11, 1872) was a Rhode Island writer and poet and a leading figure in the Dorr Rebellion in support of universal suffrage.

[3] Her ancestors were prominent members of Rhode Island families, who had distinguished themselves in the American Revolution and in the state government.

Williams gave birth to a daughter and after two years,[5] in an unhappy marriage,[3] left her husband to return to Rhode Island.

The following year, she traveled through the British provinces collecting materials for a book, Neutral French: The Exiles of Nova Scotia which was published in 1841.

[11] Williams saw the work of the Rhode Island Suffrage Association, which had no intention of granting enfranchisement to women, but rather wanted to remove the property requirement for male voters, in much the same light as religious reform.

[14] When Dorr was finally seized and imprisoned, the suffrage ladies worked for his release, becoming a "powerful and visible" force in early Rhode Island politics.

When her aunt died three years later, leaving Williams an inheritance of $10,000, she returned to Rhode Island and built a cottage for herself and her daughter in Johnston.