ANSTRUTHER, Sir John, 1st Bt. (c.1678-1753), of Anstruther, Fife.

Anstruther came of an ancient family with a strong electoral interest in Anstruther Easter Burghs and the county of Fife. Returned in 1715 for Fifeshire, which he continued to represent until 1741, he voted consistently with the Administration, adhering to Sunderland and Stanhope on the split in the Whig party in 1717, when he was rewarded with a place. Though originally attached to the Duke of Roxburghe, the head of the Squadrone, through whom he and his kinsman, Philip Anstruther, received a sum of £200 from Sunderland,Sunderland (Blenheim) mss D.II, 4. he continued to support the Government after they had been ousted by their rivals, the Duke of Argyll and Lord Ilay, voting for the Hessians in 1730 and the excise bill in 1733. In December 1733 Ilay was informed that owing to the absence of Anstruther and other prominent ministerial supporters from Fifeshire that winter, special measures would be needed to counter opposition activities in the county.19 Dec. 1733, Cholmondeley (Houghton) mss. Re-elected in 1734 unopposed, he was absent from the divisions on the Spanish convention in 1739 and the place bill in 1740, did not stand in 1741, and gave up his office for a pension of £400 p.a. in 1743.Cal. Treas. Bks. and Pprs. 1742-5, p. 601.

He died 27 Sept. 1753.