William G. Dryden (11 February 1807 – 10 September 1869) was a 19th-century lawyer who was a judge and effectively the longest-serving city clerk in the history of Los Angeles, California.

[citation needed] Dryden was arrested by Mexican authorities "because of incriminating documents," and he was jailed in Chihuahua for thirteen months until his release in November 1842.

He then lived on the Rio Grande near Matamoros and was an interpreter for Colonel David E. Twiggs, commander of the American forces occupying that city during the Mexican–American War.

[2][1] He was soon reunited with Rowland and Workman, whom he represented in the early stages of their land grant claim for the Rancho La Puente in the eastern San Gabriel Valley.

[5] Dryden was a police judge or a justice of the peace for Los Angeles County in those early years, although the dates are uncertain.

In 1856, Dryden was elected Los Angeles County Judge, handling some criminal, as well as major civil and probate cases.

[2]Wallace wrote that she had found a "classic anecdote" in more than one source that, when two attorneys drew their "six-shooters" against each other, Dryden "got out of range of the blazing guns" and yelled angrily, "Shoot away damn you!

"[2] Another anecdote, reported in 1900, has Dryden, after a jury rendered a verdict freeing a man who had been accused of horse stealing, speaking to the defendant in Spanish.

Frequent damage by floods impelled him to sell the system to a company that included fellow pioneers Prudent Beaudry and Solomon Lazard.