William Lithgow (c.1582 - 1645) was a widely-travelled Scot. He was born in Lanarkshire and educated at Lanark Grammar School.

Prior to 1610 he had visited Shetland, Switzerland, and Bohemia. In that year he set out from Paris for Rome on the 7 March, where he remained for four weeks before moving on to other parts of Italy: Naples, Ancona, before moving on to Athens, Constantinople, and others. After a three-month stay in Constantinople, he sailed to other Grecian localities and then on to Palestine, arriving in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday 1612, and later on to Egypt.

His next journey, 1614–16, was in Tunis and Fez; but his last, 1619–21, to Spain, ended unfortunately in his apprehension at Malaga and torture as a spy.

His most famous work, The Totall Discourse of the Rare Adventures & Painefull Peregrinations of Long Nineteene Yeares Travayles from Scotland to the most Famous Kingdomes in Europe, Asia and Africa (1632), is an exhilarating account of his experiences.