Background
Anstey was the second son of Thomas Anstey. He was born in Kentish Town, London in 1816. In 1823, his father, a lawyer, moved to Tasmania in Australia.
Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom
Anstey was the second son of Thomas Anstey. He was born in Kentish Town, London in 1816. In 1823, his father, a lawyer, moved to Tasmania in Australia.
Anstey returned to England for higher studies and was educated at Wellington, Somersetshire and at University College London.
He served as Attorney General of Hong Kong for 4 years. He also wrote pamphlets on legal and political topics, particularly those relevant to Roman Catholics. Anstey followed in 1827.
He was appointed a Professor of Law and Jurisprudence at the Colleges of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, Bath.
Anstey favoured the repeal of the Union both with Ireland and Scotland. He was not renominated at Youghal in 1852, but contested Bedford in the general election of that year.
Anstey was called to the bar of the Middle Temple in January 1839. He was appointed a Judge of the Insolvent Court.
He soon returned to England where he joined the Northern Circuit before moving to practice at the Chancery Bar.
In 1855, Anstey was appointed Attorney General of Hong Kong and served in that capacity until 1859. Anstey left Hong Kong in 1859 having had a falling out with the Governor Sir John Bowring. He went to Bombay (now Mumbai) where at times he acted Judge of the High Court of Bombay in 1865.
He returned to England in 1866 and in a tract entitled "A Plea for the Unrepresented for the Restitution of the Franchise" he advocated universal suffrage as a panacea for the ills resulting from class legislation.
In 1867 he published an attack upon Disraeli"s Reform Acting of that year. In 1868 he returned to Bombay and resumed his practice as a barrister.
Anstey died in London in 1873. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia his death was deeply lamented by local Indians, "whose causes he had always forwarded.".
15th United Kingdom Parliament]
He was a Liberal in English politics, but Walker classifies him as an Irish Confederate candidate when he was elected Member of Parliament for the Irish constituency of Youghal in 1847.
