William Williams (d. c1780) served as Colonel of the Martin County Regiment of the North Carolina Militia from 1775 to 1778. He also represented Martin County in both the provincial congress and later in the North Carolina General Assembly. James Rawlings, a ringleader in the Gourd Patch Conspiracy, disclosed in a sworn deposition that he and his co-conspirators had planned to assassinate Col. Williams along with several other leading officials in northeastern North Carolina. As a leader of the cause for independence, Williams, they feared, was going dismantle Protestantism. Despite these fears, Williams was not attacked. After the conspiracy's leader, John Lewellen, was found guilty and sentenced to death, Williams and other men who had been the plot's intended victims submitted petitions requesting that the governor pardon Lewellen.