He was educated at Richmond, Yorkshire, and was admitted at Peterhouse, Cambridge on 25 April 1720, aged 16.
He was a prominent freemason,[2] Bathurst was High Sheriff of Yorkshire for the year 1727 to 1728.
At the 1727 British general election, he was returned as Member of Parliament for Richmond with Sir Marmaduke Wyvill.
Their friend the mayor, who was returning officer, allowed a large number of unqualified persons to vote for them.
It was also said that at an inn, he threw a waiter downstairs and broke his leg, telling the innkeeper to put it in the bill.