Gideon Wanton (October 20, 1693 – September 12, 1767) was a governor of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations who served for two separate one-year terms.

Wanton was an advocate of paper currency, and as treasurer he issued 264,000 pounds in bills of credit.

During his two short terms the British were fighting the French, and a good part of the war was being carried out in the American colonies.

The Wantons were Quakers, who generally abrogated war, but John Bartlett, the editor of the Rhode Island Colonial Records wrote, "although Mr. Wanton was a Quaker, he was a belligerent one, and fully equal to the emergency..."[2] Most of the dealings of his two administrations concerned military and naval affairs such as raising troops, equipping privateers, and supplying war materiel.

He died on September 12, 1767, and was buried in the Friends' Burial Ground, sometimes called Governor's Cemetery, on Tilden Street in Newport.