Sir William Paterson (born April, 1658 in Tinwald, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland - died in Westminster, London, on 22 January 1719) was a Scottish trader and banker.

William Paterson was born in his parent's farmhouse of Skipmyre in Tinwald, Scotland, and lived with them until he was seventeen, when he emigrated first (briefly) to Bristol and then to the Bahamas. It was here that he first conceived the Darién scheme, his plan to create a colony on the isthmus of Panama, facilitating trade with the Far East.