William Drayton (December 30, 1776 – May 24, 1846) was an American politician, banker, and writer who grew up in Charleston, South Carolina.

Following the Nullification Crisis, as a unionist Drayton decided to move his family to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1833 and lived there the rest of his life.

[1][2] In 1780 the judge lost his position due to accusations of sympathy with rebels in the American Revolutionary War; he returned with his family to Charleston.

:[1] Thomas Drayton, a West Point graduate, stayed in South Carolina when the family moved north and bought a plantation at Hilton Head.

In a November 12, 1816, letter to president-elect James Monroe, Andrew Jackson recommended, unsuccessfully, that Drayton, a Federalist who had shown loyalty to the Madison administration and the union through his military service, be appointed Secretary of War to heal the breach between the Federalist Party, now largely moribund on the national level, and the Republicans.