Robert Charleton (1809 – 5 December 1872) was a Quaker, Recorded Minister and a prominent citizen of Bristol, England.

Robert Charleton ran one of the largest factories in East Bristol, at Two Mile Hill, Kingswood, from 1831 to 1852.

Pin making is an example of the survival of the pre-industrial system of outwork well into the Victorian years of factory based industrial organisation.

"Pin-making furnishes employment to a multitude of the poor population; the operation of fixing on the heads being carried on to a great extent by females, in private houses as well as in the manufactories".

Waring describes approvingly Robert Charletons strict moral control and his disciplined work force.

"The girls employed in pin-heading, are accustomed to take a share in the domestic labours of home; and when they become wives and mothers, are considered to fulfill their relative duties very respectably.

It is, nevertheless, hardly probable, that they can be, generally, so well qualified for the economy of housekeeping, as girls who have been either in service, or in constant household training".

Again in 1858, in company with Robert Forster, he presented to the northern powers of Europe the plea for liberty of conscience issued by the Society of Friends.

At the same time he advocated the doctrines of the Friends, and in 1849 accompanied Capper in his tent-meeting tour in Oxfordshire and the neighbouring counties.