William Workman (May 1807 – 23 February 1878), of Mount Prospect House, Montreal, was an Irish-born Canadian entrepreneur, businessman and philanthropist.

He was a partner in Canada's largest wholesale hardware house of Frothingham & Workman, and President of Montreal's City Bank.

William grew up at Ballymacash and mastered the skills for employment with the Ordnance Survey of Ireland from 1827 to 1829, when his parents took him to Montreal to join his brothers, the eldest of whom had emigrated there in 1819.

[2] William Workman's first employment was working on the newspapers, Canadian Courant and Montreal Advertiser, owned by his brother, Benjamin.

As well as handling imported items, Frothingham and Workman manufactured some hardware in their Montreal factories which employed hundreds of men.

Workman would remain in partnership with Frothingham until his retirement in 1859, and under them it would become Canada's largest tool and hardware wholesale business.

In 1854, he ventured into shipping with several prominent Montreal businessmen, including the Torrances, establishing the Canadian Ocean Steam Navigation Company.

Since the 1840s, as a manufacturer and leader of the Association for the Promotion of Canadian Industry, Workman had been in favour of high protective tariffs.

As a banker, he strongly disagreed with the government's proposed measures to widen its fiscal powers during the late 1860s, and in 1866 he attacked Sir Alexander Tilloch Galt's recommendations for tariff reductions, fearing it would bring "beggary or emigration" for many Canadians.