John Bethune of Craigfoodie

John Bethune of Craigfoodie (1670–1734), pronounced and sometimes written as Beaton, was a Scottish landowner who later became a clergyman in England.

Origins Baptised in Edinburgh on 5 August 1670, he was the son of William Bethune of Craigfoodie (died 1699) and his wife Mary Bethune, daughter of Andrew Bethune of Blebo (died 1653). His younger brother George Bethune (died 1735) went into business in Massachusetts, becoming a prominent citizen of Boston.

His father worked as an advocate in Edinburgh, where he built the present house. and supported an act on 5 August 1704.

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), 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, 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, and married Mary Watson (1703–1774), widow of John Goodwin who was the nephew of Charles Goodwin.