John Bethune of Craigfoodie

On the death of his father in 1699, he became laird of Craigfoodie and soon accepted public duties, being elected as Shire Commissioner to the Parliament of Scotland for the county of Fife in 1701. There, he signed two petitions on 9 January 1701,^[5][6] and, re-elected in 1703, he supported an act on 5 August 1704.^[7]

His father had however incurred debts and in the exceptionally heavy winter of 1708–09, when food and money were everywhere short, he had to sell lands and goods. Craigfoodie went to his brother-in-law, Charles Bell WS (died 1731),^[2] while he and his family moved to London. On a testimonial from St Andrews University, he was accepted as a priest in the Church of England, becoming chaplain to the Lock Hospital in Southwark and curate of St Michael, Cornhill in the City of London,^[2] where he died on 17 April 1734, survived by his wife.^[2]

On 15 February 1699 in Edinburgh he married Anna Urie (died 1741),^[8] daughter of the Reverend Andrew Urie (died 1707), and they had nine children. Two of their sons made careers and raised families in Sussex:

• John Bethune (1702–1775) became a surgeon in East Grinstead,^[9] and married Mildred Thorpe (1717–1782), first cousin of George Nevill, 1st Earl of Abergavenny.
• Andrew Bethune (1705–1767) became an Anglican priest living at Rowfant in the parish of Worth,^[10] and married Mary Watson (1703–1774), widow of John Goodwin who was the nephew of Charles Goodwin.