William Hutchinson, founder of Rhode Island (d. 1642)
William Hutchinson (1586–1641) was a judge (chief magistrate) in the Colonial era settlement at Portsmouth on the island of Aquidneck. Aquidneck Island was known at the time as Rhode Island, and it later became part of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.

Hutchinson sailed from England to New England in 1634 with his large family. He became a merchant in Boston and served as both Deputy to the General Court and selectman. His wife was Anne Hutchinson, who became embroiled in a theological controversy with the Puritan leaders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony which resulted in her banishment in 1638. The Hutchinsons and 18 others departed to form the new settlement of Pocasset on the Narragansett Bay, which was renamed Portsmouth and became one of the original towns in the Rhode Island colony.

Hutchinson became treasurer in Portsmouth and William Coddington was the judge (or governor). A controversy compelled Coddington to relocate in 1639 and establish the town of Newport, at which time Hutchinson became the chief magistrate of Portsmouth. This lasted for less than a year, however, as he died shortly after June 1641, and his widow and many of her younger children moved to New Netherland (later in the Bronx in New York City). Mrs. Hutchinson and all but one of her children perished shortly thereafter, massacred by Indians.

William Hutchinson was described by Governor John Winthrop as being mild tempered, somewhat weak, and living within the shadow of his prominent and outspoken wife.