William Charles Braithwaite (23 December 1862 – 28 January 1922) was a British historian, specialising in the early history of the Society of Friends (Quakers).
[2] He attended Oliver's Mount School, Scarborough, and University College London.
[3] Upon the death of John Wilhelm Rowntree in 1905, Rufus Jones invited Braithwaite to write the early history of the Society of Friends.
Rowntree and Jones had set out in 1897 to write a "comprehensive history of Quakerism", but the former died before this was possible.
[5] In 1909, Braithwaite gave the second Swarthmore Lecture, entitled "Spiritual Guidance in the experience of the Society of Friends".