David Williamson (c. 1634[a]–6 August 1706) was a Scottish minister and Covenanter who served as moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1702.

[3] On 13 July 1661, Williamson was presented by Charles II to the collegiate charge of the West Kirk of Edinburgh and ordained on 30 November that year.

Williamson refused the imposition of episcopacy within the Church of Scotland and, the following year, acts of Parliament and the Privy Council deprived him of his charge.

Williamson, however, remained in position until 13 April 1665, when his outspokenness against his newly installed pro-episcopal colleague, William Gordon, occasioned his removal.

[4] In the following years, Williamson survived many narrow escapes from the law, including the incident memorialised in the song "Dainty Davie".

[6] In George Lorimer's summary, Wodrow portrays Williamson as "a lonely hunted wanderer, glad of the shelter of a feal dyke behind which to lie down and rest himself amid the snow".

[7] After the Indulgence of 1687 granted freedom to some Presbyterian clergy, Williamson returned to Edinburgh and ministered alongside James Reid in a newly erected meeting house in the Dean.

His wives and issue are as follows:[10] At his death, Williamson was buried within an enclosure on the Knowe, the area of high ground south west of the church.

Robert Wodrow relates a story in which Williamson, going to preach in Aberdeen one Sunday, was hounded by a man who danced and sang "Dainty Davie".

[8][c] Williamson's reputation as a bon vivant is evinced by the discovery in the late 19th century of a receipt to the West Kirk's session for a plate of mince pies for Christmas 1690.