William John Grayson (November 2, 1788 – October 4, 1863) was a U.S. Representative from South Carolina.

[1] Born in Beaufort, South Carolina, Grayson pursued classical studies and graduated from South Carolina College at Columbia in 1809, where he was a member of the Clariosophic Society.

Grayson was elected commissioner in equity for Beaufort District in 1831 and resigned from the senate.

He then served as collector of customs at Charleston from August 9, 1841, to March 19, 1853.

The Oxford English Dictionary credits William J. Grayson with having first used the phrase "master race" in his poem "The Hireling and the Slave" (1855); the phrase denotes the relation between the white masters and black slaves: He died in Newberry, South Carolina, on October 4, 1863, and was interred in Magnolia Cemetery, Charleston, South Carolina.