William H. Cabell (December 16, 1772 – January 12, 1853) was a Virginia lawyer, politician, plantation owner, and judge aligned with the Democratic-Republican party.

His grandfather, Dr. William Cabell, had emigrated from Britain to Virginia and moved westward along the James River into Goochland County with his family.

At least fourteen members of the extended Cabell family would serve in Virginia's legislature before the American Civil War and six after the conflict.

[6] He then moved to Williamsburg and attended the College of William and Mary, where he took legal courses from Judge St. George Tucker before graduating in July 1793.

Cabell began his legal career soon after his admission to the Virginia bar on June 13, 1794, and also followed in his father's footsteps in entering politics.

[7] In one of his early legislative terms, Cabell voted for the Virginia resolutions against the alien and sedition laws designed to impede his political party.

While he was Virginia's governor, the British sloop of war Leopard attacked the frigate Chesapeake off Norfolk (the Chesapeake–Leopard affair later known as a forerunner of the War of 1812) and former Virginia governor Thomas Jefferson ordered the arrest of Vice President Aaron Burr for the Burr conspiracy.

Burr went on trial for treason in Richmond because much of the planning took place in lands Virginia once claimed in the Ohio Valley.

Still, he was acquitted as U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall (a fellow Richmond resident) found insufficient evidence of treason, although many conspiracies.

A similar number of enslaved people were owned by his eldest son, Dr. Robert G. Cabell, who lived next door with his family.