Robert Folkestone Williams (18091870) was an English novelist, poet, journalist, historian, biographer, magazine editor, and professor.
He was born in London in 1809, the son of Edward Williams, a surgeon. Robert originally studied surgery under George James Guthrie, but decided on a literary career.
He wrote domestic novels and historical novels on the life of William Shakespeare, the English Civil War, and the early eighteenth century. His novel Sir Roger de Coverley (1846) was published under the pseudonym Frank Ranelagh.
Williams's fictional works were widely read, with his Shakespeare novels being the best known. He was also well known in literary circles and was a close friend of Frederick Marryat, whose unfinished novel The Little Savage Williams completed, and Theodore Hook, whose unfinished novel Fathers and Sons Williams also completed for publication.
He served as Professor of Ancient and Modern History at Cavalry College, Richmond, and edited The New Monthly Magazine.
In 1839 he married Rosa Lucy du Ponte, the widow of William Francis Player, and they had three children. Williams died in 1870.