Sir William Fortescue, KC, PC (1687 – 15 December 1749) was a British judge. He was the son of Henry Fortescue and his wife Agnes, and a descendant of the noted lawyer John Fortescue. Fortescue was educated at Barnstaple Grammar School (where he met John Gay, who would become a lifelong friend) and matriculate to Trinity College, Oxford in 1705. He married his cousin, Mary Fortescue (daughter of Edmund Fortescue) on 7 July 1709, who bore him a daughter before her death on 1 August 1710. Her death prompted him to become a barrister, and he was admitted to Middle Temple in 1714, transferring to Inner Temple later in the same year before his call to the Bar in July 1715.

Fortescue was a "sound and businesslike" barrister, and a "good lawyer", and built up a strong practice. He first became involved in politics in 1724, when Robert Walpole (the Chancellor of the Exchequer) employed him as his secretary. In 1727 he was returned as a Member of Parliament (MP) for Newport, and despite his duties as an MP and secretary to Walpole he continued his practice as a barrister. In 1730 he became a King's Counsel, and the same year was made Attorney General for the Duchy of Cornwall. On 9 February 1736 he was appointed a Baron of the Exchequer, having resigned as a MP and as Attorney General. He was transferred to the Court of Common Pleas on 7 July 1738, replacing John Comyns, and on 5 November 1741 he succeeded Sir John Verney as Master of the Rolls, becoming a Privy Councillor on 19 November. He remained Master of the Rolls until his death on 15 December 1749.

As well as his work as a barrister and judge, Fortescue was also involved in the London literary scene - John Gay introduced him to Alexander Pope, and he became a founding member of the Scriblerus Club. He was the co-author of "Stradling versus Stiles" with Pope, and Pope dedicated Imitation of the First Satire of Horace to him.

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